KATHMANDU, APRIL 16--Even as the Nepal Telecommunica-tions Authority (NTA) issued a unified licence to Smart Telecom on Monday, problems plaguing the new spectrum policy and the unified licence regime and the court battle over them continued. The Supreme Court on Monday issued an interim order to the government to immediately halt the implementation of the spectrum policy, while interestingly, the NTA issued the much-talked-about unified telecom licence to Smart Telecom based on the same policy.
The court was responding to a writ filed by advocate Dimod Shrestha on April 2, where he argues that telecom companies will benefit more from the policy than the government. Also on Monday, a fresh writ was filed in the SC, which sought an interim order against the unified licence regime, making it the third such petition against the licence regime in the last five months. Advocate Narayan Prasad Devkota’s writ against the decision to provide unified licence to Smart Telecom and United Telecom Limited argues that the recommendation of the NTA to the government to issue such licence s was a ‘mistake.’
The spectrum policy—Radio Frequency Distribution and Pricing Policy 2012—holds telecom companies acquiring the unified licence to pay Rs 7.50 billion of the total renewal fee of Rs 20.13 in installments within 10 years. Under the unified licence , telecom companies can provide multiple telecom services, including cellular mobile. Even though the unified licence and spectrum policy are two different issues, they are interlinked as the policy is directly related to licence renewal fees and frequency.
The court on Monday said there was no specific provision in the policy that mentions collection of the remaining licence fee in the policy after the 10 instalments are paid. A single bench of Acting Chief Justice Damodar Sharma said the government must also explain why the policy was introduced. The court also decided to summon the petitioner and the defendants to discuss whether a further stay order is required. Six months ago, the Ministry of Information and Communications had implemented the policy with a focus on issuing unified licence s.
“We issued the licence to Smart Telecom as it cleared the licence fee, the first installment of the licence renewal fee and other dues,” said Kailash Prasad Neupane, the NTA spokesperson. He said the NTA issued the licence as there was no legal bar on it as of Monday.
On March 26, the Commission for Investigation of Abuse of Authority (CIAA) had also directed the Communications Ministry and the NTA not to implement the spectrum policy. It had warned of possible loss in revenue collection from the licence renewal fee. On April 8, the anti-graft body, after two-week-long investigations, had allowed the government to implement the policy.
According to former chairman of the NTA Bhesh Raj Kanel, the SC order will not allow the NTA to issue the unified licence to UTL. “Unified licence itself is not bad for a market like Nepal where competition is required. However, the provision of the licence renewal fee in the spectrum policy is somehow inappropriate,” he added.
The Ministry of Information and Communications had introduced the unified licence in May last year with a target to provide a level playing field to small telecom companies—UTL, Smart Telecom, Nepal Satellite Telecom and STM Telecom Sanchar. Even though STM applied for the licence, NTA has decided to issue the unified licence to the company only after necessary study. Nepal Satellite Telecom, so far, has not applied for this licence and is against the unified licencing regime.
So far, only Nepal Telecom and Ncell have been providing the GSM mobile service. The government has fixed the licnece renewal fee at Rs 20.13 billion and licence fee Rs 357.50 million. Smart Telecom has received the unified licence after paying Rs 473.20 million which includes licence fee, licence renewal fee and revenue dues to the government.
Before acquiring the licence, Smart Telecom had paid Rs 357.50 million as licence fee, Rs 50 million first installment of licence renewal fee, Rs 13.6 million remaining fee for the RTDF, Rs 2.8 million spectrum fee and Rs 49.3 million dues of the ILD gateway. “Smart Telecom will have to pay the government fixed installments of licence renewal fee each year before April 15 for next 10 years,” said Neupane.
The licence that which be valid for up to 10 years (April 15, 2013) allows Smart Telecom to provide cellular mobile service like Nepal Telecom and Ncell. UTL was scheduled to approach the NTA on Tuesday to get the unified licence. As per the licence condition of Smart Telecom, it will have to clear all Rs 20.13 billion licence renewal fee by January 15, 2023, according to NTA. Since, Smart Telecom’s licence term will expire on April 15, it will have to apply for licence renewal three months before the last date of licence expiry date clearing the renewal fee.
For the shortage of the spectrum required, the NTA for now will assign only 5 MHz spectrum in 900 MHz band to Smart Telecom and UTL. Going by the new spectrum policy, the government was supposed to provide minimum 6 MHz frequency in 900 MHz band which is considered best for GSM mobile service.
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