Introduction:

South Asian Telecommunication Regulator’s Council (SATRC) was formed in 1997 by an initiative of APT and ITU Regulatory Forum for South Asia. The SATRC is responsible for discussion and coordination of all the issues relating to regulations in telecommunication and ICT which are of common interest to the telecommunication regulators in South Asian countries. These issues included radio frequency coordination, standards, regulatory trends and issues, strategies for telecommunication development and telecommunication related international affairs. The council also indentifies and promotes areas of potential cooperation in telecommunication among South Asian countries; and facilitates the exchange of information in these areas through activities such as seminars, training and workshop.

SATRC activities are conducted by involvement of the highest level representations by the regulatory bodies of the South Asian countries. At present, SATRC is consisted of nine South Asian countries. The countries are Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Islamic Republic of Iran, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka. Affiliate members from those countries are also taking active participation in the council’s activity. The SATRC meetings are being held annually to address common concerns and issues of importance.

At present, Mr. Bhesh Raj Kanel, Chairman, Nepal Telecommunication Authority is the Chairman of SATRC for the current term of Chairmanship. Mr. Ilyas Ahmed, Chief Executive Officer, Communication Authority of Maildives is the Vice Chairman of SATRC.

Terms of Reference:

The Terms of Reference of the Council was adopted by the 3^rd Meeting of the Council which was held 19-21 March 2001 in Thimphu, Bhutan. Please click to view the Terms of Reference.

SATRC Action Plan:

The SATRC Action Plan (SAP) aims at addressing the regulatory issues and challenges of common concern to its members that arise due to technological, market dynamic, and innovations and developments in services in the field of information and communications so as to harness their full potential in a harmonious manner for the benefit of all by utilizing the expertise and financial resources available from within its member countries.

The concept of developing SATRC Action Plan was initiated in 2005 from the fact that the key issues can be addressed in a more focused and concentrated manner by adoption of an Action Plan. The Action Plan provides a common charter to SATRC members for deriving the synergy of collaborative wisdom and action. Action Plan implementation mechanism includes Working Group activities, organizing seminars/workshops, traning for capacity building and information sharing through web portal. For financing the implementation of the various activities and projects under the Action Plan, a core fund was created from the extra-budgetary contributions made by the SATRC members. The 13^th Meeting of SATRC adopted SATRC Action Plan Phase IV for implementation for the duration of 2012-2013.

SATRC Action Plan Phase I was implemented during 2004-2006, Action Plan Phase II was implemented is 2007-2009 and Action Plan Phase III was implemented is 2010-2011.  Please click on the relevant link below to see about the detail of the different Action Plan Phase.

SATRC Action Plan Phase IV:

The 13^th SATRC Meeting, held in Kathmandu, Nepal from 18-20 April 2010, adopted SATRC Action Plan Phase IV for the duration of year 2012-2013. Action Plan Phase IV has three basic components:

1. Working Groups:To conduct the work items taken under Action Plan Phase IV.
2. Capacity Building: To organize workshops/trainings for the personnel of regulatory bodies on the recent trends in telecommunication/ICT sector
3. SATRC Web Portal: To collect the information from regulatory bodies and publish it on SATRC webpage for information sharing among the regulators

Action Plan Phase IV accomodated two Working Groups (WG) to deal with various working itmes proposed by the members. The Working Groups are:

• Working Group on Policy, Regulation and Services: To deal with the issues related to policy, regulation and services in the region. This WG is chaired by Telecommunication Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI). This WG is the result of merging WG on Policy and Regulation and WG on Network and Services under Action Plan Phase III. 
  

• Working Group on Spectrum: To deal with the issues related to spectrum management, monitoring, sharing and coordinated efficient use of spectrum for different service in the region. This WG is chaired by Communication Regulatry Authority (CRA) of Islamic Republic of Iran.

Office Bearers:

• SATRC Chairman: Mr. Bhesh Raj Kanel, Chairman, Nepal Telecommunication Authority

• SATRC Vice Chairman:  Mr. Ilyas Ahmed, Chief Executive Officer, Communication Authority of Maldives 

• Chairman of WG on Spectrum: Mr. Rajkumar Upadhyay, Advisor (Converged Network), Telecommunication Regulatory Authority of India

• Chairman of WG on Spectrum: Ms. Mina Dashti, Communication Regulatory Authority, Islamic Republic of Iran

Please click here to download the contact details of the office bearers and nominated experts for the WGs.

Email Reflectors:

• WG on Policy, Regulation and Services: satrc-wg-policy@apt.int
• WG on Spectrum: satrc-wg-spectrum@apt.int

 
Meetings, Workshop, Seminars:

SATRC Web Portal:

The objective of SATRC Web Portal is to collect the information from regulatory bodies and publish it on SATRC webpage for information sharing among the regulators. Please click here to open the portal.

Related Documents:

• SATRC Action Plan Phase IV
• Report of the 13^th SATRC Meeting
• Outcomes of SATRC Action Plan Phase III
• Report of the 12^th SATRC Meeting
• Report of the 11th SATRC Meeting
• SATRC Action Plan Phase III
• SATRC Restructure
• Implementation report of SATRC Action Plan Phase II

Contact:

If you have any query regarding SATRC activities please contact to,

APT Secretariat
12/49 Soi:5 Chaengwattana Road
Bangkok 10210, Thailand
Phone: +66 2 573 0044
Email: aptsatrc@apt.int