The 24th conference of the South Asian Telecommunication Regulatory Council-SATRC will be held in Dhaka on October 3-5. The organizers of the conference are Bangladesh and 9 South Asian countries including India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Bhutan, Afghanistan, Maldives and Iran. One hundred delegates from the countries mentioned will participate who are heads of regulatory bodies on ICT affairs, telecom operators, officials of government and non-government agencies, telecom experts and so on.
The Council is organized by Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC) and Asia-Pacific Telecommunication Community (APT) under the supervision of Department of Posts and Telecommunications. Dr. Shirin Sharmin Chowdhury, Speaker Jatiya Sangsad (National assembly) will be present as the chief guest at the opening ceremony of the meeting to be held at a local hotel in Dhaka on October 3.
Posts and Telecommunications Minister Mustafa Jabbar will be present as a special guest and Secretary of the department Abu Hena Morshed Zaman will be present as an honored guest. Chairman of BTRC (Senior Secretary) Shyam Sundar Sikder and Secretary General of Asia-Pacific Telecommunication Mr. Masanori Kondo will deliver their welcome speeches.
Chairman of Afghanistan Telecom Regulatory Authority (ARTA) Mr. S. Barat Shah Nadim, Chief Executive Officer of Communication Authority of Maldives Mr. Ilyas Ahmed, Chairman of Nepal Telecommunication Authority Mr. Purushottam Khanal, Director General of Pakistan Telecommunication Authority mr. Mudassar Naveed, Director General of Telecommunication Regulatory Commission of Sri Lanka Mr. Delana Madhushanka Dissanayake, Deputy President of Communications Regulatory Authority of Iran Dr. Mahdi Rohaninejad Secretary of Telecom Regulatory Authority of India Mr. V Raghunandan, Director of Bhutan Info Communication and Media Authority Mr. Jigme Wangdi will be present at the conference.
SATRC was established in 1997 as a coalition of South Asian telecommunication regulatory body. This organization formulates policies on wireless coordination, standardization, regulatory trends, telecommunication sector development strategies, and regional cooperation and international issues related to telecommunications. The Council holds meetings every year on important issues of interest to the member countries.
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 Center of Thailand.
A total of 9 sessions and two roundtable meetings titled Regulators’ Roundtable: Regulatory Interventions and Innovations for Sustainable Digital Future and two dialogues titled Regulator-Industry Dialogue: Spectrum for Future will be held in this three-day conference. In various sessions, discussions will be held on regulatory framework and strategies in the areas of sustainable digital future, digital transformation, access and quality of broadband networks, digital inclusion, management of spectrum in social and economic development, use of spectrum in satellite and terrestrial services and 5G technology.
Earlier, the 23rd Conference of SATRC was held on 14-16 November 2022 in Tehran, the capital of Iran.