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SOUTH ASIAN TELECOMMUNICATION REGULATORS' COUNCIL (SATRC)

Introduction:

South Asian Telecommunication Regulators' Council (SATRC) was formed in 1997 by an initiative of APT and ITU Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific. 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 identifies 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.


Terms of References:

The Terms of Reference of the Council was adopted by the 3rd Meeting of the Council which was held 19-21 March 2001 in Thimphu, Bhutan. Please click to view the Terms of Reference. Revised version of the Working Methods of SATRC was approved by the 46th Session of the Management Committee of APT (MC-46). 

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. 

SATRC Action Plan Phase I was implemented during 2004-2006, Action Plan Phase II was implemented in 2007-2009, Action Plan Phase III was implemented in 2010-2012, Action Plan Phase IV was implemented in 2012-2014, Action Plan Phase V was implemented in 2015-2016 and Action Plan Phase VI was implemented in 2017-2018, Action Plan Phase VII was implemented in 2019-2021 and Action Plan Phase VIII was implemented in 2022-2023. Please click on the relevant link below to see about the detail of the different Action Plan Phase.

SATRC Action Plan Phase IX:

The 24th SATRC Meeting, held in Dhaka, Bangladesh, from 3-5 October 2023, adopted SATRC Action Plan Phase IX (SAP-IX) for the duration of year 2024-2025. SAP-IX has following components:

  1. Working Groups:To conduct the work items taken under SAP-IX
  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
  4. SATRC Web Dialogues: To share knowledge and experiences of policy/regulatory issues, challenges and best practices. It is aimed to fulfill intellectual curiosity of SATRC Members and provide opportunity to learn diversified perspectives in the field of Telecommunication/ICT.

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

  • Working Group on Policy, Regulation and Services (WG PRS): To deal with the issues related to policy, regulation and services in the region. This WG is chaired by Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA).
  • Working Group on Spectrum (WG SPEC): 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 Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI)
     

Office Bearers:

  • SATRC Chair: Engr. Md. Mohiuddin Ahmed, Chairman, Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC)
  • SATRC Vice Chair: Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI)
  • WG PRS:
    • Chair: Dr. Khawar Siddique Khokhar, Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA)
    • Vice-Chairs: Dr. Shamsuzzoha, Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC) and Ms. Roja Kiran Basukala, Nepal Telecommunications Authority (NTA)
  • WG SPEC:
    • Chair: Mr. S. T. Abbas, Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI)
    • Vice-Chairs: Mr. Norgay, Bhutan InfoComm and Media Authority (BICMA) and Mr. Adib Kamrani, Communications Regulatory Authority of Islamic Republic of Iran (CRA)

Email Reflectors:
Two email reflectors are active for the two SATRC Working Groups. If you are interested to join the reflectors please contact APT Secretariat.

Meetings and Workshops:

 List of all SATRC Events

 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. *Link to old portal can be found here.

Related Documents:

 

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: [email protected]

 
 
Last updated on 02/12/2024
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