South Asian telecom regulators' conference begins in city today

The 24th conference of the South Asian Telecommunication Regulators Council (SATRC-24) is set to begin in Dhaka today (Tuesday) to discuss regulatory and other related issues of the telecommunication and ICT sector.
Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC) and Asia-Pacific Telecommunication Community (APT) organised the three-day meeting at a city hotel.
The SATRC-24 will discuss key policy and regulatory issues of the SATRC countries, approve the outcomes of SATRC Action Plan Phase VIII and adopt SATRC Action Plan Phase IX.
The meeting will include special sessions like regulators' roundtable, industry-regulator dialogue, sharing regulatory experiences and industry sessions to facilitate development of the telecom/ICT sector in South-Asia.
The regulators' roundtable will be held exclusively for the head of regulators to discuss and share thoughts on important regulatory issues that need regional collaboration specifically for the SATRC member countries and generally for the Asia-Pacific region.
Around 100 delegates including the heads of telecommunication and information technology regulatory bodies of nine member countries in South Asia (India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Bhutan, Afghanistan, Maldives and Iran), telecom operators, officials of government and private organisations and telecom and information technology experts will participate in the meeting.
Speaker of parliament Dr. Shirin Sharmin Chaudhury will present at the opening ceremony of the meeting as chief guest while Posts and Telecommunications Minister Mostafa Jabbar will be the special guest and Posts and Telecommunications Secretary Abu Hena Morshed Zaman will be an honourable guest.
BTRC Chairman (Senior Secretary) Shyam Sunder Sikder and Secretary General of Asia-Pacific Telecommunity Masanori Kondo will deliver the welcome address at the programme.
The SATRC was established in 1997 with a combination of telecommunication regulatory bodies of South Asia.
This forum sets policy on spectrum coordination, standardisation, regulatory trends, telecommunication development strategies, regional cooperation and international issues in the field of telecommunications.
The meeting of this council is held every year to discuss important issues related to the interests of the member countries.
The SATRC's associate member companies include Axiata Group Berhad, Banglalink Digital, Grameenphone, Robi Axiata, GSMA (Hong Kong), Huawei Technologies, Telenor Asia, Telenor Pakistan, Inmersat Singapore, ITU-APT Foundation of India, Nokia Solutions and Networks India, and National Electronics and Computer Technology Centre of Thailand will also participate in the meeting.

bdsmile@gmail.com