Intensifying competition in the overseas call market, the telecom regulator is looking at 40 new applicants.
Telecommunications Regulatory Commission (TRC) officials confirmed that up to forty new applications had been processed.
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rnLicenses will only be issued to the firms paying up the US$ 50,000 fee applicable for an External gateway Operator (EGO) license. rn
rnFirms coughing up the license fee will join the existing 28 EGOs including the network operators. rn
rnHowever, interconnection issues have slowed non network operators from offering their facilities to local telephone subscribers.rn
rnInterconnection with local networks will give non network EGOs access to sell overseas call services to all telephone subscribers in Sri Lanka along with permission to terminate international calls on local networks.rn
rnOfficials say Sri Lanka Telecom (SLT) is holding back on interconnection until its final tariff rebalancing proposal receives TRC approval. rn
rnSLT initially put up three conditi