Sri Lanka Telecoms (SLT) Japanese stakeholder NTT Communication says the government has violated is shareholders agreement by allowing new players into the international voice market.
In a letter to the Mass Communications Ministrys Secretary on Friday, NTT says its fresh agreement with the government signed in November 2002 gave assurances that ldblquote no licences shall be issued for the provision of international telephone services which results in unfair discrimination against SLT. dblquotern
rnNTT claims that forcing SLT to compete in the international voice market without allowing its final tariff rebalancing was discrimination against the incumbent operator. rn
rnThe tariff rebalancing process is part of the governments agreement with NTT, to allow for SLT to brace itself for competition after August 2002, when its monopoly on international voice ends. rn
rnFour of the five proposed tariff-rebalancing exercises have been completed, with the fifth scheduled for January 2003. rn
rnSLT sub