Comments for the Telecom Policy 2006-2010

Telecommmunications Authority of Maldives (TAM) has recently opened Telecom Policy 2006-2010 for public comments. Since I am commenting for it, thought I would also share my comments with the viewers of the DigitalSquid blog to see their ideas as well.

The draft for this policy can be downloaded from TAM website.

Comments for Maldives Telecommunication Policy 2006-2010

The Introduction of this policy is basically the same thing from the policy of 2000-2005. I believe the past 5 years has brought enough change for us to write a better introduction than this.

Objective 1.1: Implement “one service one tariff” concept.

Even though the following action under the following objective was there in the policy of 2000-2005 to abolish the difference in telecommunication charges, we are at 2006 still studying the commercial impact of abolishing these differences.

Objective 1.1: Reduce the disparity in telecommunication charges between Male and the rest of the country.

Action 1.1.1: Abolish the differences in telecommunication charges among all inhabited islands, within a period of 3 years.

This action needs to be taken immediately and the difference in telecommunication charges to be abolished rather than studying the impacts of it for another 2-5 years.

Objective 3.3: The regulator should have a converged role of regulating IT and telecommunications.

I believe the following action should be added.

• The regulators skills should be enhanced for them to meet the challenges in regulating the operators.

The regulator should have enough people trained on the aspects of IT as well as telecommunications to properly regulate the issues. Unless there are trained people from these aspects, the regulator would not be in a position to properly regulate anything. People who knows IT / telecommunications should be there rather than some Management gurus who doesn’t have the knowledge or experience of IT and telecommunications. It should be more of a technical management than any other type of management.

Objective 4.2: Increase infrastructure competition

Action 4.2.3: Assign certain frequency bands as license free bands and allow installation of infrastructure for individual and scientific / experimental purposes.

- Assign the entire FCC assigned license free ISM (Industrial, Scientific and Medical) and Unlicensed National Information Infrastructure (UNII) bands as license free bands and allow them to operate as per FCC regulations with power outputs and spectrum usage.

- Assign the Military whatever frequencies they require and keep the scope to move the existing operators in these frequencies to another unallocated frequency block depending on the requirements. Everywhere else the Military is on top of the priority list and gets what ever they want before any others get a chunk of the spectrum. They should be given priority, as they are our protectors.


Even though the following action under the following objective was there in the policy of 2000-2005 for the management of the Internet domain names of the Maldives, the action has not been taken to this date and it was not even mentioned in the policy of 2006-2010.

Objective 4.2: Make available resources required for the telecommunication operators.

Action 4.2.5: Assign the Regulator with the function of registration and management of the Internet domain names of the Maldives.

The .mv domains or the Top Level Domain (TLD) for the Internet domain names of the Maldives is still under Dhiraagu which is just one of the operators.

The .mv is also believed to be the most expensive TLD which costs around USD 93.39 / year with .tv next to it with USD 34.95 / year. This could be one reason why most of the people wouldn’t want to go for a .mv domain.

The Regulator could take a small fee such as USD 0.25 / domain to maintain the list of domains as ICAAN does for most of the TLD’s and let the Operators, ISP’s and other registered / accredited Domain & Hosting companies to play the role of registration and management of the Internet domain names of the Maldives.

Objective 5.1: Increase awareness of telecommunications and ICT

ICT seminars should also be added to Action 5.1.3

Also another point should be added to encourage to form local ICT groups and to support them to conduct various ICT programs to create awareness among the public.

I welcome comments to my article as well as comments to the Telecom Policy 2006-2010.

posted by asoa @ 12:06 AM