NT takes 3G to 20 districts
Kathmandu, May 20: Nepal Telecom (NT) has expanded its
third generation (3G) service to 20 districts of Eastern, Mid-western and Far-western
regions of the country as a part of its project targeted to add 10 million
mobile lines.
The 3G service has been made available
in Morang and Sunsari district of Eastern region through 33 base transceiver
station (BTS). In Mid-western, the company has extended service with 37 BTS in
districts—Banke, Bardiya, Surkhet, Dailekh, Dang, Rolpa, Salyan, Pyuthan and
Jumla, according to NT.
Similarly, the 3G is extended in all
nine districts—Darchula, Bajhang, Bajura, Baitadi, Doti, Achham, Dadeldhura,
Kanchanpur and Kailali of Far-Western through 37 BTS. NT said that in the
initial phase, the 3G network will enables customers from headquarter of
respective districts, major business hubs of the districts and surrounding
areas to have access 3G service also known as mobile broadband.
Guna Kesari Pradhan, spokesperson of the
company said that the company would make the service accessible in other
uncovered areas of Eastern, Mid-western and Far-western region in near future. She
added that the service would provide high speed upload and download data
service besides voice service.
NT’s 10 million mobile lines project
started two years ago include 45 per cent 3G service lines. NT said that it
improved quality and expanded 3G service in the Kathmandu Valley and Pokhara
installing new equipments under the project.
For the low demand in voice service
along with increased penetration rate, the company has been focusing in data
service from last fiscal year. Of the total 8.2 million subscriber base by
mid-March this year, the company’s market share is at 52 per cent.
The 10 million line is being implementing
the project into two packages—A and B. Package A having total capacity of
distribution of 5.2 million mobile lines is being implemented with focus to
Eastern, Mid-Western, Far-Western and Central (except Kathmandu) regions. And,
B with 4.8 million line capacity is under implementation phase for Kathmandu
Valley and Western Region.
Ncell bundles service with Nexus 5Kathmandu, May 15: Ncell is providing bundle service along with Google Nexus 5 for its corporate customers. The company on Thursday said that customers will be able to own the handset under 24-month corporate subscription contract, paying Rs 4,388 each month.
Corporate customers can start placing order for the new offer from May 16, according to a press release issued by Ncell. Google Nexus 5, the much talked about handset from Google and developed by LG is yet to hit the Nepali market.
Under the contract, the customers will get Pro Premium plan worth Rs 999 and 10 GB data priced Rs 2,999 (excluding taxes) every month for 24 months, along with Nexus 5. Ncell has stated that the handset will be handed over on the first-come first-serve basis.
“Ncell special offer provides opportunity to our corporate customers to be trendy and to further enhance their personality,” said Sanju Koirala, corporate communications director of Ncell. She added that handset with Ncell plan and data services ensure the customers get total value for money.
Google Nexus 5 was launched in the global handset market in October 2013. The handset comes with the new Android 4.4 KitKat platform, 4.9 inch HD SuperAmoled display, 2.2 GHZ Quad-Core processor and 2 GB RAM. The gadget has storage of 16 GB and battery of 2300 mAh that provides 17 hours talk time, freeing customers from the worry of existing power problem, according to Ncell.
NT's income growth rate continues to fall
Kathmandu, May 14: Income growth rate of Nepal Telecom (NT) has continued to decline for second year in a row. The third quarter (mid-July to mid-April) financial report of the company says that its income grew by 5.66 per cent compared to 10.86 per cent same period of last fiscal year 2012.13.
The report made public on Tuesday shows that the state owned telecom company earned a total of Rs 29.12 billion during the Q3. Its net profit increased by 1.29 per cent to Rs 8.60 billion and expenditure reached Rs 17.61 billion. During the same period previous year, NT had posted net profit Rs 8.49 billion and expenses was at Rs 16.02 billion.
In Q3 last year, NT had earned Rs 27.56 billion, up from Rs 24.86 billion of same period of corresponding fiscal year 2011-12. The company is only one service provider that has multiple voice and data service products. With around 8.42 million customers, NT’s major source of revenue is GSM mobile service.
NT in the current fiscal year has set a target to earn Rs 41.65 billion. According to the company officials, competition, multiple choices for voice and data services in market are some of the reasons behind decline in income growth rate. The heavy growth in voice penetration rate which has reached around 90 per cent and decline in average revenue per user (ARPU) are also facts behind declining income trend.
“Overall size of income has gone up; however it is true that there has been decline in ARPU for increased penetration rate,” said Guna Keshari Pradhan, spokesperson of NT. To gain competitive advantage over competitors, NT has been focusing in new technologies including on IP CDMA, NGN, WiMax, GSM (3G,4G) for providing customers with adequate service at affordable prices, according to NT.
Besides growth in earning and net profit, the company’s expenses under personnel costs, operation and maintenance, royalty, contribution to Rural Telecommunication Development Fund, depreciation and frequency fee have gone up, whereas expenditure for other subjects like licence fee, interest on subscribers’ deposit and administrative costs have come down.
Operation and maintenance cost grew from last fiscal year’s Rs 4.08 billion to Rs 5.06 billion this year. Similarly, expense for frequency fee increased to Rs 693.86 million from Rs 362.06 million of Q3 last fiscal year. Pradhan said that the operation cost had increased for ongoing network expansion work in different parts of the country. In the last fiscal year 2012-13, the company had earned Rs 34.10 billion in revenues and earned a net profit of Rs 11.29 billion.
3rd quarter performance of Nepal Telecom
Fiscal Year Income Expenditure Net Profit
2013-14 Rs 29.12 billion Rs 17.61 billion Rs 8.60 billion
2012-13 Rs 27.56 billion Rs 16.02 billion Rs 8.49 billion
2011-12 Rs 24.86 billion Rs 11.38 billion Rs 10.08 billion
2010-11 Rs 21.55 billion Rs 8.91 billion Rs 9.47 billion
2009-10 Rs 19.47 billion Rs 9.03 billion Rs 7.75 billion
NT scheme for SLC students
KATHMANDU, May 13: Nepal Telecom (NT) has decided to provide 100 MB data free of costs to students subscribing to the company’s GSM or CDMA mobile phone service under a scheme launched for those appearing in the SLC exam this year. The company on Tuesday said that students who already bought SIM/RUIM card under this scheme already would start getting the free data from Wednesday. Similarly, those who buy the service within Mid-June will also be able to avail the free 100 MB data packages having no validity period for using it.
Fixed line subscription declining
Kathmandu, May 13: The subscription of once very popular service--fixed line telephone --has been declining continuously for last three years. More than 22,000 customers of this service have stopped using it, according to the Nepal Telecommunications Authority (NTA).
By mid-March this year the penetration of the fixed line (also known as PSTN and WLL) declined to 3.12 per cent from 3.19 per cent in mid-March 2011. While, its rival service-mobile’s penetration rate touched 77.92 per cent from 53.39 per cent three years ago.
Telecom companies attribute the fall in user base to easy availability of other services for voice telephony such as wireless GSM and CDMA mobile and low concentration of companies themselves over costly wire line service. Fixed line service is expansive in terms of investment and also being an old technology, it has less room for adding values.
The NTA says that overall penetration rate of telephone service reached to 87.20 per cent by mid-March 2014, talking the total number of subscribers to 23.1 million. Among the six telecom companies, it is only Ncell that does not provide fixed line service. Remaining five companies—Nepal Telecom, United Telecom Limited (UTL), Smart Telecom, Nepal Satellite Telecom and STM Telecom Sanchar have been providing fixed line service apart from other services like limited mobility service.
The state owned NT holds majority share in fixed line service. In the current fiscal year, the company has set target to attract 27,000 plus customers in landline. However, by the first eight months (mid-July to mid-March) of the fiscal year, only 7,343 customers have subscribed to this service. This also shows how hard it is to attract the customers.
Subash Sah, acting chief of Fixed Line Service Directorate of NT said that it is natural too witnessed decline in interest of customers over fixed lines for expansion of other services as medium for voice communications. “That is why we have been focusing to take fixed line with value added service like ADSL to different parts of the country,” he added.
The NT officials are confident that even as there is low attraction for now increasing demand for data service would also increase demand for fixe line that can provide high speed internet. Interestingly, income of ADSL which is available in fixed line is higher compared to the income of whole landline phones which is 0.65 million. The company has a total of 0.12 million ADSL users.
As an impact of changing technology, the company has been facing difficulties in keeping the infrastructures updated and adding more facilities to the fixed line. That not all; the expenses of the company over maintaining this service has been increasing because of involvement of huge number of work force in the service.
Period Fixed line Users Penetration Mobile Users Penetration
Mid-March 2014 827,295 3.12% 20.64 million 77.92 %
Mid-March 2013 843,576 3.14 % 17.39 million 65.65 %
Mid-March 2012 849,786 3.19 % 14.21 million 53.39 %
Mid-March 2011 843,576 2.95 % 10.36 million 36.27 %
Mid-March 2010 820,534 2.98 % 6.51 million 23.68 %
Source: Nepal Telecommunications Authority
Ncell to strengthen towers
KATHMANDU, APRIL 7-- Ncell has stated that it will make all its switching centres and mobile towers earthquake resilient so that its telecom service remains functional even in case of natural disasters.
Since the country lies in a high seismic risk zone, earthquake resistant telecom infrastructure is considered crucial for rescue operations and distribution of humanitarian aid. Ncell said that two earthquake resilient switching centres — one each in Pokhara and Hetauda — are in operation as a part of disaster preparedness.
The centres are built in such a way that even if an earthquake measuring ‘IX scale of modified mercally intensity (MMI) hit the area’, it would not be damaged, according to Ncell. MMI is a scale used for measuring the intensity of an earthquake. The IX level of earthquake intensity destroys and intensely damages most building structures and other physical infrastructure.
Milan Sharma, corporate communication expert of Ncell, said that the earthquake-resilient switching centres would ensure availability of telecom service even if switching centres in Kathmandu and Biratnagar stopped working due to natural disasters like earthquake. “We have plans to make our Kathmandu and Biratnagar based switching centres equally resilient like Pokhara and Hetauda.”
The company has switching centres in Kathmandu and Biratnagar too; however, they are not as resilient as those located in Pokhara and Hetauda, which were brought into operation in 2012. Sharma said that their switching centre in Pokhara has back-up power supply of diesel generator and battery for emergency.
If a high magnitude earthquake hit an area, it can dismantle infrastructure like electricity line, water supply and the mobile towers disrupting the phone service. Since mobile towers play a vital role in sending and receiving signals, the company said it was working towards re-strengthening and retrofitting old mobile towers.
There are more 5,000 telephone mobile towers across the country installed by telecom companies.
Studies have shown that most of these towers are unsafe and installed without keeping in mind the risk of earthquakes. Amid growing concern of mobile towers being vulnerable, the government has also been working to come up with a guideline to make the towers secure from natural disaster.
- See more at: http://thehimalayantimes.com/fullNews.php?headline=Ncell+to+strengthen+towers+&NewsID=411006#sthash.XSe6lqH8.dpuf
NT records Rs 5.55b first-half net profit
KATHMANDU, FEB 18 -Nepal Telecom ( NT ) earned a net profit Rs 5.55 billion in the first half of the current fiscal year 2013-14. The figure is a 0.66 percent increment compared to its earnings during the same period a year ago.
The company’s financial statement for the second quarter (mid-July to mid-January) of the current fiscal year shows its total income stood Rs 19.69 billion. In Q2 last year, the company’s income was at Rs 18.43 billion, from which it had earned a profit Rs 5.55 billion.
NT said despite a hostile business environment due to power cuts and increased competition and operating expe-nses, NT managed to record a noteworthy growth in performance by expanding its products and services.
The state-owned company posted a 6.86 percent growth in income to Rs 19.69 billion, while its expenditure grew to Rs 12.2 billion from Rs 10.81 billion last year. “Expenditures increased due to payments for projects like WiMax and the ongoing 10 million GSM lines project,” said Guna Keshari Pradhan, spokesperson for NT .
Expenses under frequency fee, contribution to the Rural Teleco-mmunication Develo-pment Fund, operation and maintenance, royalty and administrative cost have also gone up, expenses for licence fee and interest on subscribers’ deposit come down.
As per the company, its operation and maintenance cost increased to Rs 3.75 billion from last year’s 3.1 billion. This year, the company has set aside Rs 462 million for frequency fee.
Pradhan said they paid additional and maximum frequency fee in advance to the government as per the spectrum policy introduced last year. The company in the last fiscal year 2012-13 had earned Rs 34.10 billion in revenues and earned a net profit of Rs 11.29 billion.
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NT refuses to pay licence fee citing lack of legal clarity
KATHMANDU, FEB 11 -Nepal Telecom (NT) has refused to pay a Rs 20 billion GSM licence renewal fee as demanded on Tuesday by the Nepal Telecommunications Authority (NTA), the telecom regulator.
With the deadline for paying the renewal fee ending Tuesday, the authority on Monday had instructed the company to clear the fee or face a 15 percent penalty. NT said that since there was no “clear provision” regarding the payment for a second time mobile permit fee they did not find it necessary to pay the charge, further seeking government intervention over the matter.
The second permit renewal allows NT to operate its mobile service until May 2019. “After discussion with our legal and management teams, we informed NTA on Tuesday that we had paid a Rs 189 million renewal fee as per a rule in the old licence,” said Guna Keshari Pradhan, spokesperson of the NT. She added that despite a decision from the Cabinet and now-defunct Public Accounts Committee (PAC) to study the fee revision, the government failed to do so, further claiming that the government is requesting NT pay a Rs 20 billion fee “unreasonably”.
The authority officials admitted of not being able to undertake a study due to the lack of cooperation from the Communications Ministry and the absence of the NTA chairman.
Sources at NTA said that NT on Tuesday wrote to the Communications Ministry seeking intervention on the fee issue. As per Clause 20 of the Telecommunication Act, the government can issue direction to the NTA regarding the diversification, extension and regularisation of telecommunications services. However, NTA officials claimed that the government cannot intervene on fee issues though can provide direction on service related issues.
Even as NT paid Rs 189 million as a renewal fee as per its legal interpretation, the authority has said that since there are not any changes in the law regarding the mobile licence renewal fee till date, NT was accountable for the full fee.
“Since NT failed to pay all Rs 20 billion, it will now have to pay a 15 percent delay charge,” said Kailash Prasad Neupane, spokesperson for the NTA. With NT paying Rs 189 million last Friday, if the NTA’s position is adhered to, NT now owes Rs 19.81 billion. The NTA also said that the company was legally responsible to pay a 15 percent fine equating to Rs 2.97 billion.
NT on Friday paid Rs 189 million as a renewal fee and applied for the renewal of its permit which will allow it to operate services till May 2019. The amount paid by the NT is 90 percent of the licence issuance fee of Rs 210 million. NT’s existing licence expires on May 11, and it is mandatory to apply for NTA licences three months before the licence permit expires.
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NT applies to renew mobile permit by fixing renewal fee
KATHMANDU, FEB 09 -Nepal Telecom (NT) has applied to renew its mobile licence by fixing the renewal fee on its own after getting tired of waiting for the government to do so. With the deadline approaching fast, the state-owned telecom giant rushed to get its GSM permit renewed on Friday by depositing 90 percent of the issuance fee which comes to Rs 189 million.
Telecommunications laws require companies to apply to the Nepal Telecommunications Authority (NTA) for a renewal of the licence three months before it expires. Since NT’s licence expires on May 11, it needs to apply for a renewal by Tuesday.
NT spokesperson Guna Keshari Pradhan said that since the NTA had not specified the amount they needed to pay as renewal fee, they paid Rs 189 million as per their board decision. “The amount is 90 percent of the licence fee of Rs 210 million,” she added. Under the present laws which are being reviewed, NT would have to pay Rs 20.13 billion to renew its permit.
NT said that the Rs 20.13 billion renewal fee was only for the first renewal of the mobile licence. Two years ago, the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) had directed the government to collect the stipulated renewal fee for the first renewal and decide the fee for subsequent renewals based on international practices. PAC’s order had made NT hopeful that the charges would be slashed. The first renewal allows companies to operate the service for a period ranging from 11 to 15 years
This is the second time the company will be renewing its GSM mobile licence which will allow it to continue providing the service till May 2019. After NT paid the renewal fee as per its legal interpretation, the NTA on Sunday started internal discussions regarding the issue. Ananda Raj Khanal, acting chief of the NTA, said that since they had three months to renew the licence, a proper decision would be reached regarding the fee rate by that time. “There will be discussions and studies as per PAC’s instructions,” he added.
The issue of the second renewal fee holds huge importance as it will also be applicable to other telecom companies-Ncell and Smart Telecom. After five years when Ncell’s licence comes up for renewal, it will have to pay whatever the government charges NT this year. Similarly, Smart Telecom, which acquired a unified telecom licence last year, will have to pay the same amount after 14 years. If United Telecom Limited (UTL) acquires a unified licence this year, it will also be required to pay the set renewal fee after 15 years.
After obtaining a licence for the first time, operators are allowed to operate their services for 10 years; and after that, they have to get their licences renewed after every five years. NTA officials said that with NT fixing the fee based on its own reasoning, they had two options — renew the licence by accepting the fee or fix a new rate and tell the company to pay it before May 11.
Five years ago, the NTA had renewed NT’s mobile licence “provisionally” collecting the same amount of Rs 189 million for the first renewal, which had resulted in a loss to the government as it missed collecting a fine. The existing telecommunications rules allow the NTA to impose a fine of 15 percent of the renewal fee if the licence is not renewed three months before it expires.
The NTA said that it had not been able to fix the fee as the task was not only its responsibility. As per the suggestion of PAC and a cabinet decision, the NTA has been collecting the fees for NT’s first renewal in instalments. Ncell, a private company, has also been paying the licence renewal fee for 10-15 years in instalments in advance although its service period has not crossed 10 years. Its 10-year GSM mobile licence ends in August 2014.
Earlier, the Ministry of Information and Communications and the NTA had planned to visit four countries-India, Bangladesh, Malaysia and Bangkok-to study the rules there regarding renewal fees. However, the tour was later cancelled following criticism and failure to get appointments with a number of foreign officials with whom meetings had been planned.
http://www.ekantipur.com/the-kathmandu-post/2014/02/09/money/nt-applies-to-renew-mobile-permit-by-fixing-renewal-fee/259123.html
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Govt to help find suitable partner for NT this fiscal
KATHMANDU, FEB 06 - The long-standing plan to bring in a strategic partner in Nepal Telecom (NT) may see a breakthrough this fiscal. Minister for Information and Communications Madhav Prasad Paudel on Wednesday said that the government would shortly finalise on a strategic partner most suitable for the purpose.
Addressing the 10th anniversary of NT, Poudel said the state-owned telecom operator is finalising on hiring a consultant that will help it find a suitable strategic partner. The NT is currently working on terms of reference for a consultant to be hired. “The ToR will be finalised within a week,” said Dhruba Prasad Sharma, secretary at the Communications Ministry and chairman of the NT board.
The consultant will play a vital role in finding a strategic partner by a due diligence audit (DDA) report of the NT and documents for calling a tender.
The government has been planning for last years to rope in a strategic partner amid constraints in procurement affairs and growing competition with private telecom companies. However, the work to this effect has moved at snail’s pace due to procedural delays.
Four months ago, the government had allowed the NT in principle to tie up with a competent international partner without mentioning the stake to be sold.
Amid criticism of Public Procurement Act affecting NT’s procurement process, Communications Ministry officials said that they were coordinating with the Public Procurement Monitoring Office for necessary changes in the law.
Chief Secretary Leela Mani Paudyal said if the PPA was really a major hurdle, the government is ready to make necessary changes including enacting a separate bylaw to ease the NT procurement process.
Paudyal also advised the NT to focus on making customers satisfied with its services. “No matter how many lucrative schemes NT would bring out, they would all be useless if customers are not satisfied,” said Paudel.
NT Managing Direcor Anup Ranjan Bhattarai said that the ongoing projects like 10 million GSM mobile lines, 2 million IP CDMA and 200,000 lines WiMax lines would play important roles in taking the company ahead in the competitive market.
In a bid to hold NT officials responsible with their duty, the NT is also preparing to introduce a performance contract with officials above the rank of project managers. “The idea of performance contract is basically aimed at completing the assigned tasks on time,” he added.
NT launches schemes to mark anniversary
KATHMANDU, FEB 6--Nepal Telecom (NT) has launched a number of schemes on voice and data services on the occasion of its 10th anniversary. The plans include free 50 MB data for post-paid mobile users and extension of the validity for Sky Pro data pack buyers.
Customers using post-paid phones will get 50 MB of data for free per month for three months and CDMA prepaid users buying night call packages will be able to make unlimited voice calls from 10 pm to 6 am within the NT network, according to NT. In the data segment, customers buying 2 GB, 5 GB and 10 GB data packages on Sky Pro service will have a two-month validity period instead of the usual one month.
Similarly, buyers of 25 MB and 300 MB packages will get a two-day validity and 15-day validity respectively. “We have also decided to reduce the subscription charge for GSM and CDMA prepaid services from Rs 2,130 to Rs 1,430,” said Anoop Ranjan Bhattarai, managing director of NT. He added that they had resumed distribution of CDMA post-paid lines in Kathmandu and that the service would be extended outside the Kathmandu valley gradually as telecom infrastructure expands.
Similarly, the company has provided a 50 percent discount on all calls on GSM and CDMA services within the company’s service network to celebrate the anniversary. The discount scheme is effective for three days starting Tuesday. The company said that persons having hearing or speech problems would get SIM/RUIM cards at Rs 100 with a talk time value of Rs 100 for three months. They will be able to SMS at 20 paisa for three months starting from Wednesday.
Meanwhile, the company has started using its official Facebook account and launched Android App for its GSM users on a trial basis. Users of the app will be able to obtain information about the services, schemes and tariffs of the company.
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Govt. taking time to appoint new NTA member
KATHMANDU, DEC 25--The government is delaying preparation to appoint a new member in the Nepal Telecommunications Authority (NTA) board. The five year term of Girindra Raj Adhikari, one of the four members of the authority is expiring within a week.
As per the existing provision, the Ministry of Information and Communications (MoIC) has to form a selection committee and get approval from the Cabinet to recommend new member. The ministry has not shown urgency to this front as the government is in the verge of change after the Constituent Assembly election, according to a source in the NTA.
The source added since the board members most of the time were appointed with political back ups, the current election government were less interested over the new member issue. The five term of Adhikari who was appointed as a member of the NTA with the support of the UCPN-Maoist is expiring on Tuesday.
Umakanta Parajuli, spokesperson of the MoIC said that they were yet to start work on selection committee. “No decision has been reached regarding the formation of the committee so far,” he added. As per the NTA officials, the delay in appointment of new member could leave negative impact in making policy level decisions by the NTA which is already without Chairman.
A case regarding the appointment of NTA Chairman Digambar Jha is under consideration of the Supreme Court for last one year. Currently, an ad-hoc committee comprising existing members and acting chief of the NTA is entrusted to make require decisions in the telecom sector.
As per the Telecommunication Act 1997, the NTA shall consist of five members including the Chairman who are qualified and experienced, as prescribed in the technical and administrative, market management, accounts and auditing or legal field relating to the telecommunications service. Other three members of the NTA’s current board are Mahesh Prasad Adhikari, Anil Kumar Dhungel and Dhan Raj Gyawali.
Meanwhile, Adhikari has requested the MoIC and the Chief Secretary Lila Mani Paudel to extend his tenure by one more year. The government is more positive in appointing new member than giving continuity to Adhikari, a source at the MoIC said.
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Ncell extends gift scheme
KATHMANDU, NOV 28--Ncell has provided services worth Rs 1.87 billion as gifts to its customers under the promotional campaign Khusiko Bahar, Ncell ko Upahar. Prompted by the great response from customers, the company on Wednesday decided to extend the scheme for another two months.
Ncell had launched the scheme Oct 30 for 30 days. Customers participating in the plan receive a guaranteed free daily gift like internet package, bonus balance, night talk time to SMS and MMS.
“The rate at which Ncell customers subscribed to the offer was unbelievable. Hence, we have decided to continue to reward our customer for 60 days more,” said Sanju Koirala, corporate communication director of Ncell. She added that the extension of the campaign was the company’s sincere effort to prolong the festive mood among customers all through to the New Year.
The campaign offers free gifts to both existing and new Ncell pre-paid and pro-plan customers. Subscribers can join the plan for free by dialling 17100, according to Ncell. The amount of the gift varies from customer to customer, and subscribers have to use the gift by midnight of the same day. After midnight, the previous day’s gift will end, but they will get the same gift again with a validity of another 24 hours.
NT slashes rates for weekends
KATHMANDU, NOV 15 -Nepal Telecom ( NT ) has cut the call tariffs for weekends under a discount scheme valid for three months.
Customers using GSM or CDMA prepaid service can make phone calls on Saturda-ys at Rs 1 per minute compared to Rs 1.50 per minute on weekdays. Charge for GSM and CDMA post-paid users has been cut from Rs 1 to Rs 0.75 per minute. The scheme is good for making calls within the NT network only.
The tariff for PSTN and C-phone fixed has also been reduced. Customers will be charged Rs 1 for 4 minutes from 10 pm Friday to 8 am Sunday (compared to Rs 2 earlier). The tariff for making calls from one zone to another from PSTN, C-phone fixed and VSAT has been fixed at Rs 1 for 90 seconds. The charge earlier was Rs 1 per minute.
Similarly, the state-owned telecom giant said it would start providing 3G and GPRS roaming service from Friday to foreigners visiting Nepal with international roaming service. The facility is available for voice service only.
Meanwhile, the company has distributed bonus payments amounting to Rs 67.79 million to its GSM, CDMA, PSTN customers under its festival scheme that ran during Dashain, Tihar and Chhath. NT paid Rs 0.50 per minute to customers who received international calls during the period Oct 10-Nov 9, according to NT spokesperson Guna Keshari Pradhan.
Out of the total bonus payments issued, Rs 62 million went to receivers of international calls and Rs 5.76 million to users of CDMA prepaid and post-paid for making calls during the periods Oct 10-Oct 18 and Nov 2-Nov 9. CDMA users received bonus payments ranging from Rs 1 to Rs 5 depending on the cost.
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Ncell launches ‘Facebook Pack’
KATHMANDU, NOV 07 -Ncell has launched a new data pack targeting its customers who use Facebook on their mobile handsets. The “Facebook Pack” enables customers to access Facebook at as low as 50 paisa per MB.
This is the first application-based service package made available by any operator in the domestic market. The pack is coming into effect from Thursday. It will give customers a choice of subscribing to data service for Facebook only.
According to Ncell , the pack will be available on daily, weekly and monthly bases and customers can subscribe to any one of them as per their requirement. The 10-MB daily pack is priced at Rs 9 (exclusive of taxes) and it will be valid for 24 hours. Subscribing to a weekly pack of 70 MB will cost Rs 49.
Customers can also buy a monthly pack at Rs 149 and use 300 MB data. The packs are available for all Facebook applications downloaded from the Apple App Store, Google Play and the Facebook website itself.
After subscribing to the pack, customers can use the data for updating status, chatting and sending message, uploading photos and videos, post comment and like, and check in and stream videos embedded inside Facebook.
As the pack is valid for Facebook only, browsing other sites, which can also occur by clicking on links on Facebook, will be charged at regular Ncell rates, according to Ncell . Likewise, the use of Facebook after the expiry of the pack will also be charged at regular Ncell rates. Ncell has said customers can activate the Facebook pack by dialing *17115# or dialing 17115.
Facebook is a popular social networking site in Nepal and over 2.2 million Nepali are using it. “The Facebook pack will empower our customers by enabling them to be in touch with people they like and express themselves at reasonable rates. This will bring great benefits to all facebook lovers,” said Sanju Koirala, corporate communications director at Ncell .
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Ncell’s Q3 sales jump 28.6pc
KATHMANDU, OCT 19 -TeliaSonera, parent company of Ncell , said on Thursday that Ncell ’s net sales soared 28.6 percent in the third quarter (Jan-Sept 2013). The company said that the growth was driven by a higher number of subscriptions and strong growth in data.
As per the Q3 financial report released by the company, Ncell ’s net sales reached 2,256 million Swedish kroner (SEK) - equivalent to Rs 34.3 billion - at the end of Q3 with a 10.8 million subscriber base. By the same period last year, net sales of Ncell were at SEK 2,000 million.
“Growth was strongest in Nepal and Kazakhstan with a rise of 2.2 million and 1.6 million to 10.8 million and 14.3 million subscriptions respectively,” said the Q3 report. During the quarter, Nepal and Uzbekistan showed the largest rises with additions of 0.4 million subscriptions each.
The multinational telecom company has been witnessing good revenue growth in the Eurasian market, supported by increasing data consumption and subscription growth. The Eurasian market includes Ncell , Kcell in Kazakhstan, Azercell in Azerbaijan, Ucell in Uzbekistan, Tcell in Tajikistan, Geocell in Georgia and Moldcell in Moldova.
Ncell ’s user base had crossed the 10-million mark during the Q2. It has been offering different data packages to customers to increase its share in the data market amid increasing competition with state-owned Nepal Telecom. Recently, the company launched bundling schemes which enable customers to obtain a certain amount of data free of cost with purchase of a handset.
As per the Nepal Telecommunications Authority (NTA), the number of data users of Ncell reached 3.55 million as of mid-August 2013. Milan Sharma, corporate communication expert of Ncell , said that there was significant growth in demand for data service besides voice. “Our 3G service sites are increasing, and so is the number of subscribers, mainly youngsters who use data more,” he added.
TeliaSonera has significant investments in telecom operations in Nepal, Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Georgia, Moldova, Russia and Turkey. It pulled out of Nepal Satellite Telecom (NST) amid complexities last month.
According to the Q3 report, divestment of NST resulted in a loss of SEK 389 million. It has stated that the exit would help it to focus on Ncell and “reduce the business risk and complexity of its involvement in Nepal”. TeliaSonera had reached an agreement to sell back its indirect investment to Zhodar Investment.
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Royalty from telcos, ISPs up 48pc to Rs 2.77b in 2012-13, NTA reports
KATHMANDU, OCT 10 -The government’s royalty collection from telecom companies and internet service providers (ISPs) has increased by 48 percent to Rs 2.77 billion in the fiscal year 2012-13 compared to the previous year, shows the Nepal Telecommuni-cations Authority (NTA) annual progress report. The NTA submitted the report to the Ministry of Information and Communi-cations on Wednesday.
The goverment collected Rs 1.86 billion in royalty in the fiscal year 2011-12 from the NTA licencees, according to NTA spokesperson Kailash Prasad Neupane. The growth in royalty collection stemmed from the increased income of the telecom companies along with the growth of customers of telecom services.
As per the Telecommuni-cations Act, companies operating telecom, internet and network services are required to pay 4 percent of their total income as royalty to the government each year from their income of previous fiscal year.
The royal collected in the last fiscal year is from the income of previous fiscal year 2011-12 when the NTA licencees had earned a cumulative Rs 64.52 billion. The NTA licencees are required to pay the royalty by first nine months each fiscal year (by Mid-April) based on their income in the previous fiscal.
In the last fiscal year, state-owned Nepal Telecom paid royalty amounting to Rs 1.31 billion, private sector company Ncell paid Rs 1.17 billion, United Telecom Limited (UTL) Rs
223.7 million, Smart Telecom Rs 14.4 million, Nepal Satellite Telecom Rs 6.86 million and STM Telecom Sanchar paid Rs 3.8 million.
Among the ISPs, Subisu Cable Net, World Link and Mercantile were the top three royalty payers, making deposits of Rs 12.6 million, Rs 8.4 million and Rs 3.3 million into the government coffers. Web Surfer and Vianet paid royalty Rs 977,000 and Rs 821,000 respectively. NTA officials said the royalty collection, frequency charge and Rural Telecommuni-cation Development Fund (RTDF) fee is expected to increase further in the current fiscal year.
The NTA witnessed contribution of Rs 1.33 billion in the RTDF by its licencess for development of telecom in rural areas in the last fiscal year, resulting in the increase of the fund to Rs 6.02 billion. The telecom law requires telecom and internet service providers to contribute 2 percent of their total income in the RTDF. In the fiscal year 2011-12, the authority had collected Rs 920 million in RTDF fees.
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Telcos launch festive schemes
KATHMANDU, OCT 06 -Two major telecom operators, the Nepal Telecom (NT) and Ncell, have both launched promotions targeting the festivals of Dashain, Tihar and Chhath. Their offerings range from the selling of handsets, to the bundling of services, to discounts in voice and data services during the festival period.
With the NT’s offer, customers can enjoy a 50 percent discount on SMS within its network, while pre-paid and post paid mobile users of GSM and CDMA get a discount of 10 percent on the existing tariff, from Oct 10-18 and Nov 2-9. Similarly, the company has reduced the call tariff on landlines, CDMA (pre-paid and post-paid) fixed, and VSAT service to 90 paisa, down from Rs 1 per minute, for the festivals.
In the data segment, the NT is providing a 20 percent discount on CDMA EVDO data services. Similarly, it is giving a 50 percent discount to customers purchasing a three month WiMax service package during Oct 6 to Nov 9. The company is also promoting 50 paisa per minute to customers who receive international calls during the period of Oct 10 to Nov 9, according to the NT press release.
For users of CDMA pre-paid and post-paid, making calls within the NT network will also get a bonus amount. Customers spending Rs 1-10 will get a bonus Rs 1, Rs 11-20 (Rs 2), Rs 21-30 (Rs 3) and those who spend above Rs 30 will gain a bonus Rs 5. The company has also cut down charges for making international calls using access codes such as 1424 and 699.
The NT users can make a call to Australia for Rs 7.75 per minute (excluding taxes) using the access code 1424, from Oct 10 onward. NT says the charge for calls to China and Hong Kong are fixed at Rs 3 per minute, UK and Banglade-sh Rs 4, Kuwait and Bahrain Rs 8, France, Norway and Belgium Rs 8, India Rs 2.90 (using the access code 699) and Rs 60 per minute for the Maldives.
Ncell has launched the ‘Ncell Load Festival ’ offer, under which customers can acquire a Micromax set loaded with Ncell’s special service packs at low rates in the festive season. Customers can buy a Micromax X 085, loaded with Ncell services, worth Rs 3,600 for just Rs 1,449.
Likewise, the Micromax X 267 model pack worth Rs 4,451 is available for Rs 2,219, while the Micromax Ninja A54 pack can be bought for just Rs 6,399. Normally, the Ninja pack costs Rs 9,987. The new campaign will be in place until December 4, with both existing and new Ncell prepaid and postpaid customers benefiting from the campaign, according to the Ncell press release.
In each pack of Ncell’s service bundle with the Micromax handsets, customers will get an Ncell SIM card, 30 minutes of talk time and 30 free SMS within the Ncell network. In addition, customers will get data worth 10 MB, 40 MB and 100 MB free for 12 months, depending on the handsets the user buys and the monthly balance recharged.
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NT mobile service down for 4 hours
KATHMANDU, SEPT 29--Over 1 million customers of the NT in Kathmandu were out of cell phone service for four hours on Saturday morning due to a “physical damage” in transmission links. Pre-paid and post-paid GSM mobile customers were left without voice and mobile data services.
The service interruption occurred as the state-owned company has been focusing on improving its services by upgrading old mobile towers in the Kathmandu valley. The service that went down from 5:45am, was brought back to normal at 9:45am. Damage in the links between the NT’s Sundhara gateway and the Master Switching Controller (MSC) of the Telecom Training Centre in Babarmahal was to blame, according to Guna Keshari Pradhan, spokesperson of the NT.
The MSC is a telephone exchange that establishes the connection between mobile users and the network, from mobile users to the public and subsequently to other mobile networks. NT officials said that the service interruption had a comparatively low impact on business and customers as it was on a off day and the problem occurred during the morning hours.
Pradhan said that they were studying the problem closely to determine the reason behind the damage caused and explore the possibility of establishing additional redundant links so that the service remains uninterrupted even if other links go down. “We had five links between the MCS and the gateway and all of them were damaged.”
For the damage in the links, mobile users of the NT in Kathmandu were not able to make or receive calls. The damage had no impact on users outside the valley. Service for pre-paid users was down in Kathmandu, however, post-paid users in some parts of the city were able to make and receive calls, according to Pradhan.
With the mobile service down for up to four hours, the Nepal Telecommunications Authority (NTA) officials have also inquired about the problem from the NT. “It is good that the service is now back to normal and we are ready to provide required regulatory support so that service does not get disrupted in the future,” said Arjun Ghimire, deputy director at the NTA.
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NT launches four internet packages
KATHMANDU, AUG 31 -Nepal Telecom ( NT ) has launched four volume-based data packages under its Sky Pro service. The packages that are coming into effect from Sunday offer data service at Rs 0.23 to Rs 0.40 per MB.
The packages — 500 MB, 2 GB, 5 GB, and 10 GB — will have a one-month validity period, according to NT . The 500 Mb package will cost Rs 200 excluding taxes. Similarly, 2 GB, 5 GB and 10 GB packages are priced at Rs 760, Rs 1,700 and Rs 2,400, respectively.
Sky Pro service, also known as EVDO under NT ’s IP CDMA project, allows customers to avail data service with speed up to 3.1 Mbps. “Packages will help customers benefit from cheaper internet service,” said Guna Kesari Pradhan, spokesperson for NT . She said Sky Pro RUIM can be used for both voice and data service in IP CDMA technology-compatible smartphones, desktops, laptops and tablet computers through a USB dongle. In a bid to promote Sky Pro, NT has also been selling USB dongle bundling with the RUIM card. NT said customers buying the bundled service get an EVDO dongle, talk time worth Rs 100 and 3 GB data with 3 months validity at Rs 2,200.
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Ncell Nagadma Gadhgadh
KATHMANDU, AUG 24-Ncell has launched a new scheme, Nagadhma GadhGadh, under which Ncell customers can win attractive gifts, including Rs 1 million every week for 10 weeks.
The schemes is coming into effect from August 26, 2013. Under the scheme, one lucky Ncell customers using Ncell services worth Rs 50 in a week from main balance will win Rs 1 million in cash every week. Similarly, the scheme enables one 100,000 Ncell customers to win Rs. 50 worth of bonus balance and other 100,000 customers to win 50 free SMS every week.
The scheme is open for all Ncell prepaid and postpaid voice customers. All Ncell mobile subscribers spending main balance of Rs. 50 every week from August 26 will be automatically registered for the scheme.
Every week, the customer will receive a ticket number via SMS for every Rs 50 that they spend. If a customer’s weekly spending stands at Rs. 100, the customer will get 2 ticket numbers. And the lucky winner of Rs 1 million of each week will be declared through a lucky draw which will be held live on Kantipur Television every Tuesday, according to Ncell.
Likewise, 100,000 eligible customers winning Rs 50 bonus balance and another 100,000 winning 50 bonus SMS will also receive their rewards on the day lucky draw is held. The customers will have to use these free SMS and bonus balance within 7 days.
“The new scheme is our special offer to our customers this festive season. We believe this will make using Ncell’s quality services still more exciting for our valued customers”, said Milan Sharma, corporate communication expert at Ncell.
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Telecom regulator to collect fees for frequencies in advance
KATHMANDU, AUG 17 -The Nepal Telecommunica-tions Authority (NTA) has planned to require telecom companies to pay the charges for frequencies being used for 3G, WiMax and satellite mobile services in advance from the current fiscal year. It has asked the Ministry of Information and Communications for its go-ahead to implement the rule.
The NTA will collect the frequency fees that are fixed by the spectrum policy within the first three months of each fiscal year (mid-July to mid-October). The ministry unveiled the Telecommunications Radio Frequency Distribution and Pricing Policy 2012 last year, but it failed to incorporate a fee collection schedule for 3G, WiMax and satellite phone services. This prompted the NTA to come up with a separate rule.
NTA Director Ananda Raj Khanal said that after the plan is okayed by the ministry, telecom companies would have to clear the 3G, WiMax and GMPCS spectrum fees by mid-October each year. “The existing policy holds the companies responsible for paying the determined fee only for additional, maximum frequency and VSAT by the first three months of each year,” he added.
Currently, Ncell and Nepal Telecom (NT) each have been using 2x10 MHz frequency each for their 3G services. NT has also using 30 MHz frequency for its WiMax service launched last year. Similarly, two companies, i4 Technologies and Constellation that provides satellite phone service known as Global Mobile Personal Communication Service (GMPCS), will have to pay Rs 15,000 per MHz for spectrum use, according to the NTA.
NT and Ncell each have to pay Rs 240 million annually for their 3G spectrum as per the spectrum policy. The NTA started collecting the 3G spectrum fee only from the last fiscal year after fixing the fee through the policy, many years after the two companies started their service. The regulator assigned spectrum to NT in 2006 and to Ncell in 2007.
Even though Ncell cleared its 3G dues to the government in the last fiscal year, NT only made partial payment citing losses. According to Khanal, the NTA will direct NT to clear its outstanding 3G fees and also pay the charge for the current fiscal year.
NT has paid Rs 488.7 million out of the outstanding Rs 1.68 billion for spectrum use for seven fiscal years (2006-07 to 2012-13). Meanwhile, Ncell has paid Rs 1.44 billion for six years (2007-08 to 2012-13). Sanju Koirala, corporate communication director of Ncell, said that the company would pay the 3G spectrum fee as per the government’s direction.
“We still have differences regarding payment of old 3G fees,” said NT spokesperson Guna Keshari Pradhan.
Regarding the advance payment from the current fiscal year, she said the NT board and management would decide the next move after the government implements the rule.
As for WiMax, NT will have to pay Rs 12 million as spectrum fee to the government for 30 MHz. Fees for other frequencies—minimum spectrum and spot airwaves—will be collected within the first six months of each fiscal year based on the annual income of the precious fiscal year, according to the NTA.
The policy has fixed the charge for minimum frequency at 0.4 percent of the annual income. As per the policy, the government has fixed the minimum spectrum 2x6 MHz (in 900 MHz band) and 2x9 MHz (in 1800 MHz band) for mobile services.
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Ncell announces ‘Kalaajatra’
KATHMANDU, AUG 10 -Ncell , in partnership with Kathmandu Contemporary Art Center (KCAC), has announced a month-long art festival— Ncell Kalaajatra—to promote Nepali art.
The festival will offer contemporary arts, paintings and sculptures, while amateur artists will get a chance show their expertise.
The exhibition will be held at G/H Gallery in Patan Museum from August 16 to September 6, showcasing the work of around three dozen artists.
A cartoon and sculpture exhibition will also be held at Siddhartha Art Gallery, Babar Mahal. For the exhibition, more than 50 students from four art colleges and universities from Nepal are preparing, taking every day workshop at Nepal Fine Arts Academy, Naksal, from senior artists.
“Kalaajatra is our humble initiative to support and promote Nepali arts. It will provide amateurs with unique opportunity and experiences to work go together with professionals and showcase their talent,” said Sanju Koirala, corporate communication director at Ncell , at a press meet here on Friday.
Besides, KCAC will organise a carnival that will witness writers and theater artists participating with colourful paper-Mache and other artistic creations on August 24. At the end of the carnival, artists from Arohan Gurukul Theater will perform a drama.
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Revenue sharing fraud an ‘emerging threat’
KATHMANDU, JUL 23 - In the wake of the police crackdown on an illegal telecom activity called the International Revenue Sharing Fraud (IRSF) last week, telecommunication companies here have foreseen an emerging threat to their relations with their international counterparts.
IRSF, said to be one of the most critical telecommunication crimes, was tracked in Nepal for the first time, with two Pakistani nationals found using the gateway of Ncell to make calls from SIM cards issued with UK-based companies Vodafone and T-Mobile. The duo had been making telephone calls to Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, the countries with high telecommunication tariffs. In the past couple of weeks, they had made calls for over 13,333 minutes using the roaming service of T-Mobile alone.
In roaming service, the home network (T-Mobile or Vodafone in this case), has to pay a certain amount of revenue to the visited network (Ncell) based on the talk-time. The visited network then shares the revenue with the carrier service providers (CSP) to whom it passes the call. The CSP again passes the call to another such service providers to route the call to the destination country, according to telecom companies. The longer the talk-time, the higher the revenue that the CSPs and the destination network get.
Nepal Telecom officials said such crime is possible with the involvement of CSPs that route the calls and destination networks. Therefore, racketeers look forward to increase the talk-time from the home network by misusing various high-cost services, preferably roaming.
Last week’s crackdown has revealed that IRSF, the biggest telecom crime, is also taking place in Nepal, according to Sanju Koirala, corporate communication director of Ncell.
“The high revenue charge for the home network is just one side of the coin,” she said. “In the larger picture, such instances are very much likely to spoil the relations of trust between two international telecommunication companies.” If such instances keep happening, international telecom operators might stop their outbound roaming services to Nepal, experts say. Such a move will take a toll directly on the revenue generation of local telecom companies and indirectly on other related businesses like tourism, the say. Spokesperson for Nepal Telecom Guna Keshari Pradhan echoed Koirala, and called for efforts from all related quarters to avoid the illegal operation of such “telecommunication pirates”.
“IRSF is already the most feared telecommunication crime, which often goes unnoticed, as the sharing of revenue goes in the legal channel,” he said. The two-week-long coordinated search carried out by Ncell and the police, which ended on July 16 with the arrest of Nabid Ur Rahman and Mohammad Asif is both a major success and a new challenge for police units looking to curb telecommunication crimes. Such crimes were so far limited to call by-pass and Voice Over Internet Protocol (VoIP).
Police seized a laptop, 26 UK SIM cards, 17 Spain SIM cards, a Pakistan SIM card, three Ncell SIM cards and 20 cell phone sets from the Pakistanis.
According to SSP Subodh Ghimire, Head of the Kathmandu Metropolitan Police Range, Hanumandhoka, the recent arrest is an encounter that has opened up ways for other similar investigations.
“The ones we arrested are just a part of the huge trans-national racket,” he said. “Investigations to get further clues and to trace the larger racket are under way.”
]Telcos, ISPs contributed Rs 1.29b to rural telecom fund last fiscal year
KATHMANDU, JUL 22 - Telecom companies and internet service providers contributed Rs 1.29 billion to the Rural Telecommunications Development Fund (RTDF) in last fiscal year 2012-13 — up 40 percent compared to their contribution in the previous year.
The growth is mainly supported by increased income of telecom companies. Under the Telecommunication Act 1997, Nepal Telecommunications Authority (NTA) licencees are required to contribute 2 percent of their total annual income to the RTDF, which has been established for the development of rural telecom. The authority, in 2011-12, had collected Rs 920 million as RTDF fee from its licencees.
NTA Director Purushottam Khanal said the increasing size of the contribution being made to the RTDF is a result of rising income of major licencees like Ncell and Nepal Telecom.
The contribution of Rs 1.29 billion made in 2012-13 by the NTA licencees is from their income during 2011-12. The licencees had earned a combined Rs 64.52 billion in 2011-12.
Two major licencees — Nepal Telecom and Ncell — contributed Rs 650 million and Rs 580 million, respectively, to the fund. In 2011-12, Ncell had paid Rs 350 million, while Nepal Telecom Rs 520 million. Currently, the NTA has over Rs 7 billion in the RTDF, but it has not been able to utilise the resources for rural telecom development. The current growth trend in the telecom sector suggests the contribution to the fund will further rise in the current fiscal year.
“This year, the licencees are expected to contribute over Rs 1.5 billion to the fund,” said Khanal, adding that the amount collected in the last fiscal year does not include the fines worth over Rs 180 million imposed for late payment.
All six telecom companies — Ncell, Nepal Telecom, United Telecom, Smart Telecom, Nepal Satellite Telecom and STM Telecom Sanchar — and many other internet service providers were imposed fine for not paying the RTDF fee on time.
The NTA said with the Ncell objecting the fine provision and filing a writ petition against it, a case is under consideration of the Supreme Court. The telecom regulator had imposed 25-200 percent fine to telecom companies and ISPs as per the RTDF Bylaw 2012.
NTA Assistant Director Surya Lamichhane said the licencees have to pay the RTDF fee within the first three months of the fiscal year to avoid penalty. However, the telecom companies and ISPs have long been arguing that the provision of fine for payment delay is not practical as their annual audit does not conclude within the first three months of the fiscal year.
Based on the bylaw, the NTA can impose a 25 percent fine in the fourth month. “If a licencee pays the fees between the fifth and sixth months, the fine will be 50 percent. If the payment is made between the seventh and ninth months, the fine will rise to 100 percent,” said Lamichhane. “The fine will be 200 percent if the payment is made between 10th and 12th months.”
Contribution to RTDF
Fiscal Year RTDF collected
2012-13 Rs 1.29 billion
2011-12 Rs 920 million
2010-11 Rs 698 million
2009-10 Rs 552 million
2008-09 Rs 430 million
Source: Nepal Telecommunications Authority
Ncell H1 net sales up 13.22 percent
In the same period last year, the net sales of Ncell were recorded at SEK 1,331 million with the subscriber base reaching 8.1 million.
In its second quarter report, TeliaSonera said the number of Ncell ’s subscribers reached 10.3 million, including 10.2 pre-paid GSM mobile users. Ncell ’s user base had crossed the 10-million mark during the Q2.
“In Nepal, we reached a new milestone by passing 10 million subscriptions,” said TeliaSonera CEO Per-Arne Blomquist in a statement on Wednesday. According to him, organic revenue growth remained around 14 percent in Eurasia, supported by increasing data consumption and subscription growth.
The Eurasian markets of TeliaSonera includes Ncell , Kcell in Kazakshstan, Azercell in Azerbaijan, Ucell in Uzbekistan, Tcell in Tajikistan, Geocell in Georgia and Moldcell in Moldova.
In the second quarter, Ncell ’s data revenue grew by a significant 94 percent. Data earnings accounted for 6 percent of the total revenue for the quarter.
Ncell has been offering different data packages aggressively to customers to increase its share in the data market. Currently, the company has been providing “Buy 1 Get 1 Free” scheme which enables customers buying a monthly pack of 10MB and above to get the same volume of data for free. “Our schemes and the growth in the number of smartphone users helped increase data user numbers,” said Milam Sharma, corporate communications expert, Ncell .
The Nepal Telecommunications Authority’s Management Information System report shows Ncell has 3.4 million subscribers of data services — GPRS, EDGE and 3G. In the total data market, Ncell commands a 52 percent share, followed by Nepal Telecom (46 percent).
Although the number of Ncell data users is increasing, the company has witnessed a decline in the growth of mobile service subscription. Ncell added 2.2 million new mobile subscribers during the one-year period between July 2012 and June 2013, against a subscription of 2.7 million in the July 2011-June 2012 period.
In total, net sales of TeliaSonera decreased by 4.2 percent to SEK 49,816 million compared to SEK 51,987 million during first half of 2012. The company’s total number of subscribers increased by 9.5 million in last year to reach 183.6 million. It is one of the leading European telecommunication companies that operate services in over 20 markets, including the Nordic and Baltic countries, the Eurasia and Spain.
NTA to submit annual plan to ministry directly
KATHMANDU, JUL 08 -The Nepal Telecommunications Authority ( NTA ) has decided to forget protocol and submit its programme for fiscal 2013-14 to the Ministry of Information and Communications for its approval.
As per the Telecommunications Act, the NTA board has to approve the yearly programme and send it to the ministry for its go-ahead. However, the ad hoc board has not been able to hold a meeting and reach a decision for more than two months as its legitimacy is being examined by the Supreme Court.
“We are sticking our neck out as the new fiscal year starts next week, and we do not have any programme yet,” said a high-level NTA official. He added that even though the board members would not hold a meeting, they have agreed informally to send the plan to the ministry.
The NTA has been hamstrung with every one of its decisions running into controversy, especially after its contentious decision to award a unified licence to Smart Telecom last April. Since the board has not been able to function, the NTA ’s operations have been affected. It has not been able to renew the licences of internet service providers (ISPs), issue new ISP licences, approve the tariffs of telecom and internet companies and implement its annual plan effectively.
After the issue of Digambar Jha’s appointment as chairman was dragged into court, the Communications Ministry had formed an ad hoc board with four members to make policy-level decisions. It was formed on the basis of clause 60 of the Telecommunications Act that allows the government to remove difficulties and hurdles in its implementation. However, the board has not been able to function as a case related to it is being discussed in court, said NTA director Ananda Raj Khanal.
The regulator of the telecom industry has been grappling with more than half a dozen court cases related to Jha’s appointment, unified licence and spectrum policy. In addition, the Commission for Investigation of Abuse of Authority has been breathing down its neck over suspected irregularities in the distribution of unified licence and telecom spectrum.
The NTA ’s draft annual programme has the district optical fibre project at the top of the list. The draft also includes projects like taking broadband internet to government schools and colleges by using resources available in the Rural Telecommunications Development Fund (RTDF) under the Connect A School, Connect A Community project. Procuring automated drive test equipment for Quality of Service (QoS) monitoring of the telecom service is another major item in the programme.
Validity period of NT mobile recharge to be increased
KATHMANDU, JUN 06 - Nepal Telecom (NT) has decided to increase the validity period of the balance held by pre-paid mobile users in response to criticism from customers and the Nepal Telecommunications Authority (NTA).
The telecom giant said the validity period for recharging a mobile phone by Rs 100 would be raised to two months from the current 21 days. The move will especially benefit low spending customers. They have been forced to extend the validity period by topping off their phones to keep them active even though they have an unused balance.
A meeting of NT board held last week decided to increase the validity period of the balance. The NTA has long been badgering the state-owned company to increase the validity period. The short lifespan of a recharge has been inconvenient for cell phone owners who maintain a small balance and use their sets mostly to receive calls.
“We will be lengthening the validity period keeping in mind its importance for customers who spend little on telecom service,” said a NT board member. He added that the validity periods were being doubled for all recharge plans.
Presently, NT provides a validity period of two months, six months and one year for recharging the phone by Rs 200, Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 respectively. Under the proposed scheme, the validity period will be raised to five months, one year and two years respectively.
Meanwhile, NTA officials said that they had been asking NT to increase the validity period acting on constant complaints from customers. “It is good that NT is extending the balance expiry date. We have been urging the company to do this for the last one and half years,” said Arjun Ghimire, deputy director of the NTA’s Consumer and Economic Analysis Section. He added that Ncell had been providing a validity period of six months for recharging the balance by Rs 100.
NT is in final stages of increasing the validity period which is expected to retain existing customers and attract new users. “We will make the new validity provision public soon,” said Babu Kaji Shakya, deputy managing director of NT’s Business and Change Management. Over 95 percent of NT’s GSM mobile users use the pre-paid service. Its subscriber base amounted to 7.12 million as of mid-March 2013.
Government devising new policy to promote IT, BPO
The Ministry of Science, Technology and Environment has started collecting inputs from experts, associations concerned, and local companies in this regard.
Despite huge potential in software development and BPO services, the country has not been able to rip the benefits from the sector. There is no specific policy framework to promote the sector yet although the sector has been included in the Nepal Trade Integration Strategy as one of the services having huge potential.
Rajan Raj Pant, controller of the Office of the Controller of Certification under the Science and Technology Ministry, said the demand for IT services from international markets has been rising due to cheaper labour in Nepal. “The policy has been necessary for gaining faith of customers and setting the minimum level of quality assurance,” he said. There are an estimated over 6,000 BPO companies in Nepal working for international companies. However, only some 250 of them are registered legally. As per the Computer Association of Nepal (CAN), labour charge in the local market is cheaper by 35 percent than that in India, which has prompted foreign companies to buy services from Nepal.
“Many people are working smoothly, but are maintaining low profile due to tax issues,” said CP Adhikari, coordinator of BPO/Software Committee, CAN. He said the government has to win confidence of local companies and promote the country’s potential in the international market.
Outsourcing companies have been saying the government should emphasise on ending load-shedding, providing incentives to such companies and assure data security.
Many companies and individuals have been involved in BPO services that range from normal low-skilled service like data entry to high-skilled services like software development, graphic designing, animation or medical transcription.
As per the Ministry of Commerce and Supplies, the IT and BPO services are exported particularly to EU countries, the US, Japan, Australia and New Zealand.
According to IT expert Manohar Bhattarai, there is huge potential in mobile application development. He said the government should work as per the existing IT Policy or make needful amendments to the policy to promote the BPO sector, rather than devising a separate policy. The IT Policy amended in 2010 has aimed at facilitating outsourcing companies and developing the IT sector.
It is estimated that around 5,000 graduates enter the labour market with degrees in ICT every year in Nepal. Through the proposed policy, the government aims to attract international investors in the IT sector, set strategic direction for the BPO sector, create employment opportunities and certify and accredit training agencies.
KATHMANDU, APR 10 -Nepal Telecom (NT) has said it will intensify distribution of high-speed wireless internet services across the country with an aim to make data service its main revenue earner. So far, the state-owned company’s major income comes from the voice service.
NT is currently distributing the WiMax wireless broadband internet service as part of its internet service expansion plan. It will also soon start distribution of IP-CDMA mobile lines having minimum data speed of 156 kbps. “We will distribute the broadband internet service through GSM and CDMA technologies with an aim to make data service as the major source of income,” said Dhurba Prasad Sharma, chairman of the NT board, addressing the company’s fifth annual general meeting here on Monday.
The company will also focus on advancement in fixed line phone service for providing modern voice, video and data service based on technologies such as next-generation network, multi service access network and media gateway, according to Sharma.
As of mid-February, NT’s subscriber based increased to 8.5 million, including 634,943 fixed line or PSTN customers. By the end of mid-July, the company targets to raise its customers base to 9.26 million.
At the meeting, general share holders and representatives of trade unions suggested the NT management and the board to concentrate more on improving quality of service and diversify investment. They said the service has not improved in accordance to the rise in maintenance expenses.
In a bid to discourage government interference, NT trade unions also underscored the need for appointing a managing director through the board decision, but not through the decision of the government or minister. “If the trend continues, no one can stop NT from being ruined,” said Saroj Kumar Dhungada, president of Nepal Telecom Employees Union.
The AGM also endorsed the board’s proposal to provide 48 percent cash dividend to shareholders from the profit earned in the last fiscal year. The company’s revenue in 2011-12 stood at Rs 36.79 billion, and net profit at Rs 11.60 billion. The company aims to generate Rs 36.81 billion revenues this fiscal year with support of news services like WiMax, IP-CDMA and news lines under the 10 million GSM mobile lines project.
Sharma said the company will focus on setting up infrastructure for service expansion to rural and semi-urban areas. He said it has been necessary to adopt new technologies, diversify services and improve service quality to stay competitive in the market.
Recharge and win: Ncell
KATHMANDU, APRIL 7-Leading telecom company Ncell has launched a new promotional
scheme “Recharge and Win” that allows its pre-paid service customers win a car,
5 tolas of gold and a bike each week. To be eligible to win the prizes, a
customer will have to recharge balance of at least Rs 100 a week.
The scheme is coming into effect from April 8 for 10 weeks. Three
lucky customers topping up the balance through virtual fund transfer or
recharge card of Rs 100 or above can each win a car, 5 tolas of gold and a bike
every week, according to Ncell statement issued on Sunday.
Apart from three lucky customers, 5,000 other customers will
win bonus balance of Rs 100 every week. The bonus balance will have validity of
one week period. Ncell says that all pre-paid customers recharging their
balance will be automatically registered for the scheme. For each recharge of
Rs 100, the customers will get a lucky draw ticket meaning that those
recharging Rs 100 multiple times will receive multiple tickets.
"The tickets will be issued through SMS on completion
of the week, that is every Monday, starting from April 15," Ncell said. The
company has stated that the scheme was launched coinciding the Nepali New Year 2070.
The winners will be declared through a lucky draw that will be held on the next
day of issuance of tickets. The lucky draw will be broadcast live on Kantipur
Television, according to the statement.
Teledensity surges to 46pc
KATHMANDU, AUG 24 -Telecom services in the country have reached to 46 out of every 100 people. With fierce competition among telecom companies, telecom penetration has touched 46.05 percent as of last fiscal year.
With two telecom majors—Nepal Telecom (NT) and Ncell—in a neck and neck competition in the GSM segment, the country’s teledensity surged by 14.2 percent in 2010-11. According to latest statistics of Nepal Telecommunications Authority (NTA), total telecom subscriber base has increased to 13.16 million.
Of the total teledensity, mobile users account for 40.59 percent, fixed line 2.93 percent and other services 2.52 percent among the projected national population of 28.58 million.
During the one-year period from mid-July 2010 to mid-July 2011, telecom operators added 4.23 million subscribers, up 61 percent compared to the period of mid-July 2009 to mid-July 2010 when operators had added 2.62 million users.
NTA Spokesperson Kailash Prasad Neupane attributes this increment to increased competition among operators that has resulted in reduced tariff, network expansion in new areas and introduction of value added services.
Amid increased competition, market leader NT witnessed a decline in its overall market share from 61 percent to 51 percent in the last fiscal year. Dismal performance in the GSM segment is the main reason behind this slump.
In 2010-11, NT’s subscribers grew by 23.33 percent, while Ncell’s customers surged by a whopping 90.95 percent, making Ncell the market leader in the GSM segment. Now, Ncell commands 43 percent market share, an increment of 10 percent over the year.
Ncell toppled NT from the top position in the GSM segment through aggressive marketing, new schemes, service area expansion and tariff cuts over the last year. But NT struggled throughout the year to initiate its expansion plans.
NT says it has not been able to post good growth mainly due to delay in implementation of new projects. “Whenever we try something new, the government intervenes, citing possible irregularities, which ultimately pushed strategic plans back,” said a top NT official.
This fiscal year will be crucial for NT if it has to maintain its dominant position in the market. The company has called a global tender to add 10 million mobile subscribers based on GSM and 3G technology by the end of 2015. Although the country has been witnessing a robust growth in telecom sector, service quality, especially in GSM mobile, has always been criticised by users. NTA is also carrying out a survey in four major cities to study telecom service quality and take necessary action.
Voice-over broadband service: Govt, telcos at loggerheads
KATHMANDU, AUG 14 -Confusion has been created over the use of the Asian Development Bank (ADB) aid provided for implementing the voice-over broadband service (VoBS) project in 38 districts after the government slowed down the process due to major telecom service providers’ objection.
Nepal Telecom and Ncell, which are planning to expand their wireless broadband services to rural areas, are lobbying hard not to implement the ADB-funded project which could hurt their income. ADB has granted $6 million for the VoBS project under the Information and Communication Technology Development Project whose total budget is $25 million.
This project targets to take the high-speed data service having 256 kbps bandwidth to the selected districts and their rural communities within 2014. Given the VoBS can be used even for the voice over internet protocol (VoIP) service—a major income source of operators—they fear losing that income if the contract is awarded to any other company. The stated-owned telecom giant has made a formal request to the Ministry of Information and Communications (MoIC) recently not to implement the VoBS project. “It is not necessary to implement VoBS as we are already preparing to provide similar services with Wimax technology that provides high-speed internet and voice services,” said Anoop Ranjan Bhattarai, deputy managing director of NT.
Ncell, which is also expanding its wireless broadband service in the country, is also against the project. A source at Ncell said the ADB fund should be used in other purposes instead of replicating the services that telecom operators are in the process of providing.
Given intense lobbying from telecom service providers, the government is undecided on the ADB fund’s use. “The VoBS Project Steering Committee headed by the chief secretary is yet to come with a final decision,” said a source at MoIC. “NT wants to create monopoly in data service by having its own broadband infrastructure amid dec-line in income from voice service.”
There are also concerns over the long term utility of the Wimax technology, which is slowly being phased out from the world. A high-level official at Nepal Telecommunications Authority (NTA) said the demand was a foul play plotted by high level officials of the ministry and NT. “It will take 10 years for NT to spread WiMax services—which is slowly being phased out from the world telecom market—to all VDCs,” said the official.
Following the government’s decision to allocate spectrum for the WiMax technology-based services, NT had called a tender to establish wireless broadband access using WiMax in 2.30-2.40 GHz band to every VDC and municipalities of the country with a minimum data rate of 256 kbps downlink and 256kbps uplink. NT is all set to award the contract for the West and East Networks within a week. The networks will have a capacity of 200,000 subscribers. “We will award the contract to two vendors,” said Bhattarai.
umber of GSM mobile users doubles to 10.7m
KATHMANDU, AUG 09 -The number of GSM mobile subscribers almost doubled during the last fiscal year to reach 10.7 million. There were 6.8 million cell phone users in Nepal in 2009-10.
Nepal Telecom and Ncell added 3.9 million new mobile subscribers during fiscal 2010-11. Privately owned Ncell attracted 2.7 million new mobile users while state-owned Nepal Telecom added 1.2 million subscribers.
Officials at the Nepal Telecommunications Authority said that a decline in tariff, competition between the two operators and increased dependency on cell phones led to the surge in the number of mobile owners.
“Subscriptions have increased rapidly over the last two years as a result of competition among operators,” said a high-level official at the authority. “However, the quality of service is still below the standard in the GSM segment compared with fixed lines.”
In an effort to find out the real situation of the telephone services being provided by the operators, the authority is doing a survey in four major cities, Kathmandu, Pokhara, Biratnagar and Nepalgunj, with a focus on mobile services.
In the current fiscal year, the authority is planning to conduct a study of the service quality of basic telecom and mobile services in remote and urban areas and has set aside a budget of Rs 2.1 million for the purpose.
GSM mobile being the major communication service, occupies more than 80 percent market share in domestic telecom service. With the increased subscriptions of the GSM mobile service, mobile penetration in the country too has increased to over 40 percent of total population.
A monthly breakdown of the expansion in the subscriber base in the last fiscal year reveals that Ncell added the highest number of users, more than 300,000, during the period mid-February to mid-March 2011. This was also the period when Ncell toppled the state-owned telecom giant from the number one position in the GSM segment.
Sanju Koirala, corporate communication manager of Ncell, said that they had been able to achieve this massive surge in subscriptions because of the quality of the network and innovative offers. “We will expand to all the districts by the end of 2011 and cover over 90 percent of the country’s population,” she added.
Nepal Telecom has recently called a global tender for the largest GSM project till date, prompted by increased demand for mobile services and neck-to-neck race with Ncell. The state-owned company plans to add 10 million mobile lines in the next four years. The project will also have lines for 3G and 4G services.
Police crackdown on VoIP rings: Telcos’ incoming int’l calls surge
KATHMANDU, AUG 07 -With continuous crackdown and vigil on illegal operation of the voice over internet protocol (VoIP) call bypass, the country’s telecom operators are witnessing a huge surge in incoming international calls through their gateways.
Telecom operators attribute this surge to the action taken by Nepal Police’s Central Investigation Bureau (CIB) against VoIP racketeers over the last year. Ever since the CIB started crackdown on VoIP racketeers, more international calls are coming to Nepal through international gateways.
Nepal Telecom (NT) that used to receive 28-40 million minutes of international calls per month through its International Long Distance (ILD) Gateway is now receiving over 50 million minutes of international calls per month. The figure had hit as high as 100 million minutes in July.
Surendra Prasad Thike, deputy managing director and spokesperson for NT, said the control of illegal VoIP call bypass increased their income as well as the government revenue. “Customers too are getting quality service as the call through the illegal way is comparatively less clear,” he added.
Same is the story with another telecom major Ncell. According to CIB, incoming international calls of Ncell also increased significantly from 28 million minutes to 65 million minutes in January, 2011.
Other telecom companies—United Telecom and Smart Telecom—too have recorded growth in their international incoming calls.
Telecom operators are understandably elated to witness the growth in the international incoming calls through their international gateways, which is their major source of income. Telecom companies charge Rs 8 per call on an average, which is comparatively higher than that being charged by illegal VoIP racketeers. “CIB has done a wonderful job,” said Sanju Koirala, corporate communication manager of Ncell. She said Ncell had blocked over 100,000 SIM cards, taken action against some point of sales, maintained a digitised data base, re-verified subscribers and developed an internal tool to fight illegal VoIP call bypass.
The illegal call bypass had been a major headache for operators and the country as a whole. Telecom operators licensed to operate this service through their international gateways were facing a loss of over Rs 500 million every month.
The VoIP technology allows telecom operators to make international calls at cheaper rates besides checking huge revenue loss due to illegal calls. Illegal VoIP call by-passers make use of the VoIP gateway to divert international calls from the legal gateway. The call is then transferred to subscribers through a SIM card like a normal call. They use broadband internet for routing phone calls, unlike conventional switching and fibre-optic alternatives.
CIB is now behind Bhola Kishor Dangol—a former engineer of Nepal Electricity Authority for his involvement in the illegal call bypass. Dangol is believed to be the kingpin of illegal VoIP operation in Nepal. “Our investigation shows that Dangol had been involved in VoIP call bypass for the last four years through his company Global Internet Services,” said Rajendra Singh Bhandari, director of CIB.
Dangol’s Global Internet Services was found providing internet services to Bhaskar Sharma Paudel and Rupak Maharjan who were also involved in operating illegal call bypass. The CIB probe shows that the duo had been by-passing calls for the last two years by renting a house in Manbhwan, Lalitpur. CIB had arrested Paudel and Maharjan on July 25 and also seized equipment being used for the call-bypass.
Similarly, CIB has arrested Rakesh Giri, owner of Net Plus, an ISP, for being involved in the illegal call-bypass. Giri was taken into custody after a joint team of CIB on June 17 found VoIP equipment at a rented house in Jaisidewal, Kathmandu.
NT calls for tenders for 10m mobile lines
KATHMANDU, AUG 05 -Nepal Telecom (NT) on Wednesday called for global tenders for its ambitious mobile network expansion project. The tender is NT’s largest till this date. The state-owned telecom giant plans to add 10 million mobile lines cross the country at a cost of Rs 15-20 billion.
The expansion project will be based on two technologies—Global System for Mobile communication (GSM) and Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS), also known as third generation (3G) mobile telecommunications technology. According to NT, the project is targeted at addressing demand for 2G, 3G and 4G mobile services for the next four years. However, NT did not disclose the number of 2G, 3G or 4G lines to be procured through the project.
The supply, delivery and installation of the equipment and commissioning of the new lines will be carried out in two packages involving two vendors. Under package A, NT plans to add 5.2 million GSM/UMTS lines in the Central, Eastern, Far Western and Mid-Western development regions, according to the tender invitation notice issued by NT. Likewise under package B, a total of 4.8 lines will be added in the Kathmandu Valley and the Western Development Region.
“The new lines will come into operation within the next 15-18 months with an advanced network having better quality,” said Anoop Ranjan Bhattarai, NT’s deputy general manager. He added that the project would play an important role in providing service on demand at a time when NT is facing stiff competition from private operators.
NT plans to completely re-design the network in the Kathmandu Valley to address problems related to service quality. Similarly, networks will be built in major cities like Biratnagar, Birgunj, Pokhara and Nepalgunj for 4G services with a priority on data and voice services. The project is expected to be completed by 2015. NT had discussed the project extensively with the Public Procurement Monitoring Office to avoid legal complications.
Meanwhile, NT and China’s Huawei Technologies on Friday signed an agreement for supply, delivery, installation and commissioning of 2 million IP CDMA lines.
NT’s bridging project hits snag
KATHMANDU, AUG 02 -Nepal Telecom (NT)’s bridging project for adding 1.55 million GSM and IP CDMA lines suffered a setback on Tuesday after the parliamentary Public Accounts Committee (PAC) directed the telecom giant to strictly follow the Public Procurement Act.
Suspecting irregularities in the bridging project, the PAC directed NT to adopt a transparent, competitive and fast-track process for its network expansion. NT had decided to add the additional lines without calling tender through a negotiations with ZT—-a Chinese telecom equipment manufacturer.
The PAC concluded that NT reached to the present situation of SIM card shortage due to its failure in implementing instructions issued by the parliamentary panel previously. With increased concern over service quality and procurement work, PAC on Feb 2, had directed NT to improve its procurement procedure, service quality, and formulate short-, mid- and long-term work plans while buying equipment or services.
“We have directed the Ministry of Information and Communications and NT to furnish clarification within 15 days on why the state-owned telecom operator did not implement the directives issued by PAC on Feb 2, 2011,” said PCA Chairman Ram Krishna Yadav. Similarly, the PAC has instructed NT to submit monthly progress report.
With PAC asking NT to follow the Public Procurement Act, its plan of adding 400,000 CDMA lines will not take off. The Act allows government entities to carry out direct procurement of projects that cost up to 30 percent of previous projects of the same nature under special circumstances. However, NT’s was planning to spend $ 5.71 million in its CDMA project which is 51.1 percent of previous CDMA projects worth $ 9.44 million.
However, there are confusions over its GSM expansion plan. In order to execute the plan through the bridging project, NT now has to produce facts that prove that the bridging project is the need of the hour.
Avanindra Shrestha, secretary of the Public Procurement Monitoring Office, said going by the Public Procurement Act, if NT proves the need of additional lines, it can add network capacity that is equivalent to 30 percent of the main project. “But, if the bridging project amount crosses 30 percent, it will not be able to add the lines as per the law,” he added.
NT officials said they would still be able to continue with the GSM bridging project with the Procurement Act followed. “The act allows us to buy the line capacity equivalent to 30 percent of the last project,” the official added. NT had set aside $15.48 million for the bridging project of 1.15 million GSM lines. The amount is 29.60 percent of the main project cost $52.03 million.
However, Lawmaker Prakash Chandra Lohani said they had clearly directed NT to follow a transparent and competitive tender procedure. “Based on the PAC directive, NT has to scrap the bridging project,” he added.
Anoop Ranjan Bhattarai, deputy managing director of NT, said they would soon decide on how to move ahead after the PAC’s directive, amid increasing competition with private sector telecom operators. “This direction will leave a negative impact on the expansion work as well as income,” he added. According to NT, if network expansion is not executed through the bridging project, it will not have the capacity to distribute GSM mobile lines after mid-November this year.
NT, PAC at odds over bridging project
KATHMANDU, JUL 28 - Nepal Telecom (NT) has stated that addition of over 1.5 million GSM and CDMA lines through a bridging project (a stop-gap arrangement) is a must as the existing network capacity could only meet demand for the next three months.
The bridging project is currently under the parliament’s Public Account Committee (PAC) scanner as NT planned to carry out the project without following due tender procedures. Under this stop-gap project, NT is planning to add 1.15 million GSM lines and 0.4 million IP based CDMA lines to address the demand for the current fiscal year.
“We will not have SIM cards after three months if we fail to buy additional lines through this project,” said Bishwa Nath Goyal, managing director of NT, giving clarification to the PAC meeting on Thursday. He said the project of adding 10 million GSM lines will take 16-20 months for the commissioning and around 12 months time will be required for the IP CDMA project.
Under the IP CDMA project, NT has targeted to add 2 million CDMA lines with focus on rural areas. It is also set to call a global tender for the 10 million GSM lines, bearing in mind the market demand for up to 2015.
According to NT, existing GSM network does not have the capacity for SIM distribution after mid-November this year as it has been distributing 200,000 SIMs per month on an average. Similarly, it will be able to distribute 156,000 CDMA lines only after setting up 50 additional base transcriber stations.
At the meeting, PAC members said NT should concentrate on improving its network quality. They also asked the state-owned telecom operator to follow tender process to add lines instead of introducing the bridging project and buying lines from same old venders. The final decision of the PAC regarding this project is likely to come after tomorrow afternoon’s meeting.
Lawmaker Narayan Prasad Dahal doubted over NT’s move to upgrade capacity through negotiations with same old vendors in the name of bridging project. “It should call a tender as per the law. If there are any obstacles in the Public Procurement Act, it should be amended,” he added.
NT, which is under pressure to add lines at the earliest amid stiff competition from private GSM operator Ncell, has set aside Rs 1.12 billion for the bridging project and Rs 411.26 million for CDMA lines. “If you prove our vested interest in this project, I am ready to face any action,” said Goyal at the PAC meeting.
Bhagwati Kafle, secretary of the Commission for the Investigation of Abuse of Authority, said NT faced the problem due to the delay in calling tender for network expansion. “We do not ask NT to stop the bridging project. It can move on if it does not breach the existing law,” said Kafle.
Spectrum allocation row: PAC to NTA: Furnish details of officials involved
KATHMANDU, JUL 26 - The parliament’s Public Accounts Committee (PAC) on Tuesday directed the Nepal Telecommunications Authority (NTA) to forward the names of officials involved in the assignment of spectrum and issuance of limited mobility licence to telecom operators at different times.
A sub-committee formed under the coordination of Lawmaker Prakash Chandra Lohani six months ago has been investigating possible irregularities in the distribution of 2G and 3G spectrum. The panel has been saying that NTA—the telecom regulator—allocated spectrum without following any standard norms hurting the government’s revenue.
The sub-committee has also directed NTA to come up with the details of six telecom companies’ owners or their ownership structures, spectrum being used and extra occupied by operators and their income details (excluding revenue generated from the international long distance (ILD) service) for the last three years. NTA has also been asked to clarify on what basis it assigned the spectrum to STM Telecom, Nepal Satellite and Smart Telecom without any competition.
“We have given three days to NTA to submit the details,” said Som Bahadur Thapa, secretary of PAC. He said NTA has also been asked to provide details about the latest situation of the service operation by six operators in the country.
Assignment of spectrum to telecom operators has become a much debated issue of late. Huge irregularities have been suspected in allocation of frequency to operators at different times.
Also on Tuesday, the sub-committee meeting sought clarification from the officials of the Ministry of Information and Communications and NTA. Lohani said the sub-committee will come up with a final report which will help the government formulate an equal standard norm on spectrum allocation. “Our study has shown that six telecom operators have acquired spectrum in six different ways and this situation can create a big problem,” he said.
At the meeting, Ananda Raj Khanal, director of NTA, said spectrum can be allocated in four ways—as per the decision of the Radio Frequency Policy Determination Committee or the Ministry of Information and Communications, through the board decision of NTA and directly by the NTA chairman. “Spectrum was allocated at different times in different ways,” he added.
CA members have underscored the need for summoning past and present ministers for investigation. They said irregularities could not have taken place without the involvement of ministers and officials.
With the spectrum distribution issue getting bigger by the day, the Commission for Investigation of Abuse of Authority has already shown readiness to investigate into the case.
NTA to ask for number of 3G data service users
KATHMANDU, JUL 25 - The Nepal Telecommuni-cations Authority has stated that it will soon ask Nepal Telecom and Ncell to provide figures of their 3G data service users separately. The operators have been providing data that includes their GPRS users.
As of mid-June this year, there were 2.66 million people in Nepal using internet service through GPRS. However, it is not clear how many of them are subscribers to high speed 3G data service. Ncell, the market leader in GSM mobile service, has been offering 3G data card service for the last 10 months. Nepal Telecom, the state-owned telecom service provider, started the service in May.
“We will soon ask telecom operators to provide the number of their 3G data service subscribers,” said Kumar Prasad Sharma, director of the authority. Authority officials said that all the service providers were required to submit the real number of their subscribers separately based on the services they offer.
After two dozen internet service providers (ISP) failed to submit figures about their subscribers monthly, the authority is also preparing to re-direct them to make available the data. There are 50 ISPs in the country. Despite the authority’s directive, only 26 ISPs have provided the number of their users.
According to the recent MIS data released by the authority, the 26 ISPs in the country have a subscriber base of 48,689 as of mid-June. This is a fall of 20.18 percent compared to 61,000 subscribers as of mid-June 2009. For the last couple of years, ISPs have been finding it hard to continue their business following the launch of ADSL internet service by Nepal Telecom, increased use of GPRS and now the launch of 3G data card service by telecom operators.
Binay Bohara, president of the Internet Service Providers Association of Nepal, said that many people had stopped subscribing to dial-up internet service during the last one year. According to him, people were also reluctant to subscribe to cable internet which is comparatively dearer because of the problem of load-shedding.
Among the customers of ISPs, 13,276 belong to the dial-up segment, 21,080 to wireless modem and optical fibre ethernet and 14,333 to cable modem or cable internet for data service. Based on the number of subscribers, Wordlink Communications has the largest subscriber base of 19,858. Broad Link Network and Communication has a user base of 11,792. Two other major ISPs, Mercantile Communication and Subisu Cablenet, have 9,445 and 4,150 subscribers respectively.
NT to call global tender for 10m GSM lines this week
KATHMANDU, JUL 21 - Nepal Telecom (NT) has said that it will call a global tender for adding 10 million GSM mobile lines within a week. The project is estimated to cost Rs 15-20 billion and is targeted at addressing the market need of up to 2015.
Bishwa Nath Goyal, managing director of NT, said the project includes additional lines for 2G, 3G, and LTE or 4G technology based services. “This will allow us to provide service on demand to consumers,” he said at a press conference on Wednesday.
Through this project, NT will set up a completely new network in the Kathmandu Valley and take the 4G service to major cities of the country with priority on data and voice service. The project will be completed in two phases through two vendors.
“The assignment of the project works to two venders will ensure timely completion of the project and reduce the dependence on a single vendor,” said Annop Ranjan Bhattrai, deputy managing director of NT. He added that NT is calling the tender after holding thorough consultations with the Public Procurement Monitoring Office so that the project does not face any obstructions.
Ncell sales more than double
KATHMANDU, JUL 21 - Ncell’s net sales more than doubled to Rs 5.35 billion in the second quarter (Q2) of 2011. TeliaSonera—the parent company of Ncell—has stated that the 108.6 percent growth was supported by continued strong subscription intake.
As of Q2 this year, Ncell’s total number of subscriptions has increased to 5.4 million, making it the GSM market leader in Nepal. In the same period last year, net sales were recorded at Rs 2.56 billion with subscriptions reaching 2.7 million.
“Ncell became the GSM market leader and revenues more than doubled compared to last year,” said Lars Nyberg, president and CEO of TeliaSonera in a press release issued on Wednesday. According to him, revenue from the voice service surged 120 percent.
Ncell—the first private sector mobile service operator in the country—had clinched the top spot from the state-owned Nepal Telecom during the period of mid-Feb to mid-Mar, 2011. TeliaSonera holds an 80 percent stake in Ncell.
In the second quarter subscriptions, Nepal, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan recorded the largest growths under TeliaSonera’s Eurasia market, with an increment of 0.6 million, 0.4 million and 0.1 million subscriptions, respectively. The Eurasia includes Ncell, Kcell in Kazakshstan, Azercell in Azerbaijan, Ucell in Uzbekistan, Tcell in Tajikistan, Geocell in Georgia and Moldcell in Moldova.
Sanju Koirala, corporate communication manager of Ncell, said the company has been adding more than 200,000 new subscribers every month on an average. She added that the company is primarily focusing on expanding voice service to new un-served areas.
In total, net sales of TeliaSonera—Europe’s 5th largest telecom operator—have increased by 3 percent in Q2 supported by Mobility Sweden, Kcell, Ncell and Yoigo in Spain. Its total subscriber base has increased to 159.4 million as of Q2.
NTA to ask for number of 3G data service users
KATHMANDU, JUL 25 - The Nepal Telecommuni-cations Authority has stated that it will soon ask Nepal Telecom and Ncell to provide figures of their 3G data service users separately. The operators have been providing data that includes their GPRS users.
As of mid-June this year, there were 2.66 million people in Nepal using internet service through GPRS. However, it is not clear how many of them are subscribers to high speed 3G data service. Ncell, the market leader in GSM mobile service, has been offering 3G data card service for the last 10 months. Nepal Telecom, the state-owned telecom service provider, started the service in May.
“We will soon ask telecom operators to provide the number of their 3G data service subscribers,” said Kumar Prasad Sharma, director of the authority. Authority officials said that all the service providers were required to submit the real number of their subscribers separately based on the services they offer.
After two dozen internet service providers (ISP) failed to submit figures about their subscribers monthly, the authority is also preparing to re-direct them to make available the data. There are 50 ISPs in the country. Despite the authority’s directive, only 26 ISPs have provided the number of their users.
According to the recent MIS data released by the authority, the 26 ISPs in the country have a subscriber base of 48,689 as of mid-June. This is a fall of 20.18 percent compared to 61,000 subscribers as of mid-June 2009. For the last couple of years, ISPs have been finding it hard to continue their business following the launch of ADSL internet service by Nepal Telecom, increased use of GPRS and now the launch of 3G data card service by telecom operators.
Binay Bohara, president of the Internet Service Providers Association of Nepal, said that many people had stopped subscribing to dial-up internet service during the last one year. According to him, people were also reluctant to subscribe to cable internet which is comparatively dearer because of the problem of load-shedding.
Among the customers of ISPs, 13,276 belong to the dial-up segment, 21,080 to wireless modem and optical fibre ethernet and 14,333 to cable modem or cable internet for data service. Based on the number of subscribers, Wordlink Communications has the largest subscriber base of 19,858. Broad Link Network and Communication has a user base of 11,792. Two other major ISPs, Mercantile Communication and Subisu Cablenet, have 9,445 and 4,150 subscribers respectively.
NT to call global tender for 10m GSM lines this week
KATHMANDU, JUL 21 - Nepal Telecom (NT) has said that it will call a global tender for adding 10 million GSM mobile lines within a week. The project is estimated to cost Rs 15-20 billion and is targeted at addressing the market need of up to 2015.
Bishwa Nath Goyal, managing director of NT, said the project includes additional lines for 2G, 3G, and LTE or 4G technology based services. “This will allow us to provide service on demand to consumers,” he said at a press conference on Wednesday.
Through this project, NT will set up a completely new network in the Kathmandu Valley and take the 4G service to major cities of the country with priority on data and voice service. The project will be completed in two phases through two vendors.
“The assignment of the project works to two venders will ensure timely completion of the project and reduce the dependence on a single vendor,” said Annop Ranjan Bhattrai, deputy managing director of NT. He added that NT is calling the tender after holding thorough consultations with the Public Procurement Monitoring Office so that the project does not face any obstructions.
Ncell sales more than double
KATHMANDU, JUL 21 - Ncell’s net sales more than doubled to Rs 5.35 billion in the second quarter (Q2) of 2011. TeliaSonera—the parent company of Ncell—has stated that the 108.6 percent growth was supported by continued strong subscription intake.
As of Q2 this year, Ncell’s total number of subscriptions has increased to 5.4 million, making it the GSM market leader in Nepal. In the same period last year, net sales were recorded at Rs 2.56 billion with subscriptions reaching 2.7 million.
“Ncell became the GSM market leader and revenues more than doubled compared to last year,” said Lars Nyberg, president and CEO of TeliaSonera in a press release issued on Wednesday. According to him, revenue from the voice service surged 120 percent.
Ncell—the first private sector mobile service operator in the country—had clinched the top spot from the state-owned Nepal Telecom during the period of mid-Feb to mid-Mar, 2011. TeliaSonera holds an 80 percent stake in Ncell.
In the second quarter subscriptions, Nepal, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan recorded the largest growths under TeliaSonera’s Eurasia market, with an increment of 0.6 million, 0.4 million and 0.1 million subscriptions, respectively. The Eurasia includes Ncell, Kcell in Kazakshstan, Azercell in Azerbaijan, Ucell in Uzbekistan, Tcell in Tajikistan, Geocell in Georgia and Moldcell in Moldova.
Sanju Koirala, corporate communication manager of Ncell, said the company has been adding more than 200,000 new subscribers every month on an average. She added that the company is primarily focusing on expanding voice service to new un-served areas.
In total, net sales of TeliaSonera—Europe’s 5th largest telecom operator—have increased by 3 percent in Q2 supported by Mobility Sweden, Kcell, Ncell and Yoigo in Spain. Its total subscriber base has increased to 159.4 million as of Q2.
UTL cuts its calling rates to six countries
KATHMANDU, JUL 01 - United Telecom Limited (UTL) has reduced the tariff for international long distance calls to six countries. Customers now pay Rs 2.59 per minute to make calls to India, the US, Canada, China, Singapore and Hong Kong.
The company has brought down the call rate from Rs 3 to Rs 2.59 per minute to India and from Rs 4 to Rs 2.59 per minute to the other five countries. The new tariff is effective from July 1.
“Being the pioneer private sector telecom, we will continue to come up with quality service at cheaper prices,” said UTL general manager Madan Singh, addressing a press conference on Thursday. He added that the company would also focus on spreading quality data service along with voice service.
UTL, the first private sector telecom operator, has spread its services to 44 districts of the country. Singh said that they would be adding another 10 districts to the network in the next three months.
NT slashes ISD call tariff
KATHMANDU, JUN 29 - Nepal Telecom (NT) has slashed its tariff rates for making calls through access code 1424 to six countries having a huge number of Nepali migrant workers. The countries are India, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Kuwait.
According to a press release issued by the NT, tariff for making calls to India has been reduced from Rs 4 per minute to Rs 2.90. Similarly, for Qatar, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Kuwait, the tariff has been set at Rs 12 per minute, exclusive of applicable taxes. Earlier, it used to cost Rs 20 per minute for calling to these countries.
The new tariff will come into effect from Friday. Stiff competition in the domestic telecom market has been forcing telecom service operators to cut down their call rates. Ncell and United Telecom Limited have been charging Rs 2.99 and Rs 3 per minute (0.75 paisa per 15 seconds), respectively, for making calls to India.
Panel recommends 2.6 GHz and 700 MHz band for 4G
KATHMANDU, JUN 29 - Telecom operators’ aspiration to operate 4G mobile services in the country seems to be coming true. A committee formed to carry out a study on the possibility of 4G technology has recommended the government to assign spectrum from 2.6 GHz and 700 MHz band to interested operators through auction.
Two major telecom service operators— Nepal Telecom and Ncell— are showing interests for introducing the much-talked about 4G technology. 4G is the next complete evolution in wireless communications having a comprehensive internet protocol solution where voice, data and streamed multimedia services can be given to users. Also known as long-term evolution (LTE), 4G is the successor to 3G and 2G.
“We have recommended the Ministry of Information and Communications (MoIC) to assign spectrum through auction based on international trend,” said Amar Sthapit, deduty director of the Nepal Telecommunications Authority (NTA) and a member of the study team. He said 700 MHz band is appropriate for rural areas and 2.6 GHz having 150 MHz bandwidth will be suitable for operating 4G services in densely populated urban areas.
The ministry had formed a six-member committee comprising telecom experts and officials from NTA to carry out study and make recommendation for the 4G technology. The Radio Frequency Policy Determination Committee, under the ministry, will decide on assigning 4G spectrum.
About a month ago, the committee had also decided set aside spectrum from 2.3 GHz and 3.3 GHz band for introducing WiMax tech-based voice and data services in the country. Currently, NTA is working on a guideline for introducing WiMax services.
The 4G technology is considered more advance than WiMax in terms of mobile communications. In October last year, Ncell, the first private sector mobile operator in Nepal, had asked NTA for frequency to start 4G test service in 2011. It had demanded the Nepal Telecommunications Authority to provide spectrum in the range of 700 to 2,600 MHz. Nepal Telecom had also asked for the spectrum to introduce the technology.
According to Sthapit, based on both the bands, permissions can be given to five operators for operating 4G services in the country. He said following the introduction of 4G technology, users can surf internet at 100 Mbps speed.
The International Telecommunication Union (ITU) has described 4G as a family of networking standards that offers data transfer speeds of up to one Gigabyte per second. It can provide a comprehensive and secure all-internet protocol-based mobile broadband solution to laptop computer wireless modems and smartphones.
More than 10m Nepalis using mobile phones
KATHMANDU, JUN 27 - The country’s GSM-based mobile subscriber base has crossed the 10 million mark as of the 10th month (mid-April to mid-May) of the fiscal year. GSM mobile is the major communication service in Nepal with a market share of more than 80 percent.
According to the Nepal Telecommunications Authority (NTA), the number of mobile subscribers increased to more than 10 million, a 58 percent jump over the last one year. As of mid-May 2010, the country’s two GSM telecom service operators, Nepal Telecom and Ncell, had 6.40 million subscribers.
NTA officials cited increased popularity, cheaper devices and lowered tariff resulting from stiff competition between the operators to the rise in the number of users. As of mid-May this year, Ncell retained its top position with a subscriber base of 5.20 million while Nepal Telecom has 4.87 million subscribers. “Phone tariffs have dropped significantly because of fierce competition between operators, and by default the service is going to be more affordable in the days to come with a focus on data service,” said Ananda Raj Khanal, director of the authority.
Based on the monthly subscription trend, the highest growth rate was recorded during the sixth month (mid-Nov to mid-Dec). During the period, Ncell and Nepal Telecom added a total of 725,278 subscribers, an increase of 8.71 percent, to reach 9.05 million.
With aggressive marketing strategies and newer schemes after re-branding in March last year, Ncell had toppled state-owned telecom giant Nepal Telecom from the top position in the GSM mobile segment in March. It added 2.26 million subscribers during the 10-month period (mid-July to mid-May) of the current fiscal year.
Similarly, Nepal Telecom provided pre-paid and post-paid GSM mobile service to 912,604 new customers during the review period. It has been working on a huge project to add six to 10 million GSM subscribers. Till the end of the last fiscal year, there were a total of 6.9 million GSM mobile service subscribers.
Meanwhile, the number of subscribers to telecom services has increased to 12.47 million as of mid-May 2011. With heavy support from GSM penetration, telecom service access has reached 43.65 percent of the estimated population of the country of 28.58 million.
Even though the country has been witnessing a robust growth in mobile service, the quality of service has always been criticised by service users. The NTA is also carrying out a survey in four major cities to study the service quality being offered by operators and take necessary follow-up action. Khanal said that there was lack of a strong consumer rights protection law to hold operators accountable, and that users too had to be more aware about the type of service being offered.
UTL’s royalty dues soar
KATHMANDU, JUN 26 - A new twist has emerged in the royalty row between the Nepal Telecommunications Authority (NTA) and United Telecom Limited (UTL), with NTA saying that UTL owes Rs 952.16 million in royalty dues.
According to the telecom regulator, royalty dues of UTL, the country’s first private telecom player, increased after the company submitted separate income details for its three services— basic telephone service, limited mobility and internet service. As per the NTA rule, telecom companies have to submit their income details separately for their each service.
NTA had earlier said UTL’s committed royalty dues from the basic telecom service stands at Rs 896 million. An additional Rs 56.16 million is for its limited mobility and internet services. “UTL’s royalty dues increased by Rs 56.16 million based on its income details,” said Kailash Prasad Neupane, spokesperson for NTA, adding that UTL is supposed to pay royalties separately for separate services.
Although UTL has been granted three separate licences for the basic telecom, limited mobility and internet services, it has been paying four percent of its income as royalty in bundle for all services against the license agreement.
As per the income details submitted to NTA, UTL has earned Rs 1.40 billion from the limited mobility service over the last five years. Based on these details, UTL has dues worth Rs 56 million for its limited mobility service. It has to pay Rs 160,000 for its data service (internet), as its total income from this service stands at Rs 4 million over the last five years.
NTA in March, in a letter, had asked UTL to submit its income details within three months to ascertain the exact amount of its royalty dues.
UTL had committed to pay Rs 1.24 billion as royalty for the basic telecom service for eight years (2002-03 to 2009-10). Of the committed amount, it has so far paid Rs 160.57 million and Rs 189.45 million was waived by the government for the loss it incurred during the service halt by the then royal regime.
For the basic telecom service, the licence agreement between NTA and UTL says the latter must pay the royalty amount, whichever is higher among the committed royalty fee while obtaining the licence or four percent of the total annual income, according to the NTA.
NTA and UTL are embroiled in the royalty row for quite some time now. Currently, the issue of basic telecom service’s committed royalty is being discussed in the Appellate Committee of Information Ministry. On April 28, UTL had approached the committee against the NTA’s directive issued on March 24 to clear the royalty dues within 35 days with a warning to scrap the operating licence.
Mobile telephony market’s explosive growth continues
37 percent of the country’s population uses cell phones
KATHMANDU, JUN 12 - Mobile telephony has virtually become the mainstay of telecommunication in Nepal. Such is its domination that 37 percent of the country’s population uses mobile phones.
Latest statistics of the Nepal Telecommunication Authority (NTA) show that the number of mobile phone subscribers has reached 10.7 million—an increase of 57 percent over the last year (mid-April 2010 to mid-April 2011).
The growth can be attributed to stiff competition between two major players—Nepal Telecom and Ncell—that resulted in reduced tariff, introduction of new value added services and availability of affordable handsets.
Coverage of mobile telephony has also widened with the expansion of services to rural areas. “Telecom companies are investing huge money for service expansion to stay ahead in the competition,” said Kailash Neupane, spokesperson for NTA.
Nepal is predominantly a GSM mobile market. And, it is the rapid expansion of GSM mobile service that has been instrumental in the overall growth of mobile telephony. GSM mobile has the largest market share of 81 percent. Number of users in the GSM segment has increased by around 60 percent over the last year—from 6.15 million to 9.83 million.
With the mobile telephony getting high priority from telecom companies as well as users, fixed telephony (land line) has taken a back seat. A Nepal Telecom official says there has been a huge decline in demand for land line telephones these days.
Now, even Nepal Telecom (NT) is more focused on mobile telephony with aggressive expansion plans in the GSM segment. This year, the country’s telecom sector is expected to see a fierce competition between NT and Ncell.
In a bid to retain its No 1 position in the GSM mobile segment, NT is currently carrying out groundwork to add 10 million new lines in its GSM network. NT lost its No 1 position to Ncell in mid-March.
According to NTA statistics, Ncell currently has 5.03 million subscribers against NT’s 4.80 million. It was the combination of several factors such as aggressive marketing and rebranding exercise, launch of new services and infrastructure expansion, among others, that propelled Ncell to the numero uno position.
Mobile telephony in Nepal is only 12 years old. NT expanded telecom services and infrastructure to all parts of the country, while private players, including Ncell, played a key role in making telecom service affordable to common people.
Mobile telephony has increased common people’s access to telecommunication. Gone are the days when people had to wait for years for a single telephone line. Now, within an hour, people can get a mobile connection. And, this is why more people are getting attracted to this service.
The expansion of mobile telephony has also opened new business avenues, with mobile banking introduced by some commercial banks being an example. Now, banks and tech-companies are jointly getting into mobile commerce to reach out to remote areas that are not covered by conventional banking.
Number of subscribers
Mid-April 2010 Mid-April 2011
GSM 6,150,305 9,839,334
CDMA 678,163 871,219
Total 6,828,468 10,710,553
Wimax technology: Govt to assign spectrum to three cos
KATHMANDU, JUN 02 - The government has decided to assign spectrum to three operators to provide WiMax technology-based services. The Nepal Telecommunications Authority said it will grant operating licences to two telecom operators including Nepal Telecom and an internet service provider.
Recently, the Radio Frequency Policy Determination Committee under the Ministry of Information and Communications decided to assign spectrum to NT without auction for being the oldest and the largest telecom company of the country. With this, the state-owned company will get license to offer both voice and high speed data service without any competition among potential service providers.
Two other operators each representing private sector telecom operators and internet service providers will be provided the frequency through auction. The committee has fixed the base-price of Rs 800,000 per 5 MHz for the auction of WiMax spectrum. The authority has already allocated 2.3 GHz and 3.3 GHz band for offering WiMax tech-based voice and data services.
“The spectrum for operating WiMax services will be assigned to a telecom operator and an internet service provider through auction,” said a Bhesh Raj Kanel, chairman of the authority and a member of the committee. He said the spectrum will be assigned to companies that agree to pay the highest fee and Nepal Telecom will have to pay the same amount agreed by that company.
In a bid to assign spectrum for data service based on WiMax, the authority will first select interested ISPs through a beauty contest method to check their eligibility for taking them to the auction phase. However, according to a committee member, interested telecom operators except Nepal Telecom will be taken to the auction directly.
According to the Ministry of Information and Communications, the annual spectrum fee for WiMax has been set Rs 300,000 per MHz for an internet service provider that will provide only the data service. Similarly, charge for the telecom operators who will provide WiMax technology-based voice and data services will have to pay Rs 7 million per MHz.
WiMAX, also known as wireless broadband access, is a telecommunications technology that allows service operators to provide voice service as well as high speed data service even in remote areas where extension of optical fibres are expensive or almost impossible. However, how telecom operators and internet service providers would react to this new plan is yet to be seen, as WiMax is around a decade old technology and major telecom operators are eyeing to switch to latest technologies such as long term evolution (LTE) and fourth generation (4G).
“This technology can be good for internet service providers that are facing hard times after introduction of ADSL data service by Nepal Telecom,” said an official at the ministry. “However, since big telecom operators are already demanding spectrum for the latest technology, the government’s plan might not get good response as expected.”
Telecom service quality: Brazen bags contract to conduct study
KATHMANDU, MAY 29 -Nepal Telecommunications Authority has awarded contract to Brazen Consultant—an engineering firm—to carry out a survey on the quality of service being provided by local telecom operators. The firm will conduct the study focusing on mobile service in four major cities Kathmandu, Pokhara, Biratnagar and Nepalgunj.
Following the authority’s call for expression of interest (EoI), four firms had submitted 16 technical and financial proposals, one each for four cities. The study will cover GSM mobile, fixed line, CDMA, wireless loop line and limited mobility services.
“We will soon conduct training for Brazen for the study and sign a contract,” said Uday Regmi, deputy director at the authority. He said the firm will have to complete the study within 40 days in Kathmandu and Pokhara, and within 20 days in Nepalgunj and Biratnagar after signing the contract. The firm will complete the study by mid-July this year and will charge a fee of Rs 0.8 million.
Although telecom service penetration in the country has already increased to over 40 percent of the total population with subscriber base of around 12 million, service providers have not been able to ensure quality service. According to a survey conducted by the authority last year, service quality of all major operators was below the benchmark. A service provider is considered good if its call quality rate is 90 percent or above. The quality of service, particularly in wireless voice, is most criticized.
Regmi said they would receive the final report by the end of the current fiscal year. “Based on the report, we will issue directives to operators failing to meet the set benchmark for service quality,” he said. Brazen will conduct the study based on parameters of the International Telecommunication Union. The parameters include call setup success rate‚ service access delay‚ call completion rate‚ call drop rate, reason for call failure, call quality from the performance test‚ consumer perception, billing accuracy and overall call quality perception of the consumers.
The authority’s study report released in December last year had showed that Nepal Telecom’s landline had a call quality rate of 81.10 percent, GSM 69.60 percent and CDMA 76.10 percent. Similarly‚ Ncell’s GSM mobile service had scored 84.50 percent and United Telecom’s CDMA received 80.80 percent.
New provision on spectrum assignment soon
KATHMANDU, MAY 26 -The government is coming up with a new provision to assign frequency for introducing services based on WiMax technology. The Radio Frequency Policy Determination Committee has agreed to auction spectrum for this technology.
The committee under the Ministry of Information and Communication on Thursday agreed in principle to auction spectrum and is also all set to finalise it formally. As per the existing method, the government assigns frequencies in the service operating license or on a later date to operators on the first-come-first serve basis.
“The spectrum will be provided to two operators one each from telecom service providers and internet service operators for the WiMax technology-based services,” said a high level ministry official. The official said the committee, after holding a meeting for three consecutive days, agreed to auction the much talked about WiMax technology.
This is the first time that the government is devising such a provision based on which operators wanting to acquire operating license for WiMax will have to go through an auction process. The method is considered as the most transparent and revenue generating for the government.
However, the committee is yet to agree on a base price for the auction. Surya Bahadur Raut, chief of Frequency Division at the ministry, said the committee is holding discussions to fix the base price.
The government will first select eligible operators from existing ISPs through a beauty contest method to check their eligibility for taking them to the auction phase. However, telecom operators will be taken to the auction phase directly, according the official.
There are six telecom operators and 42 ISPs in the country. The government has already set aside 2.3 GHz and 3.3 GHz band for WiMax.
The ministry official said the government will assign licence to an ISP for taking data services across the country and the base price for them would be less than that for telecom operators. “Telecom operators those bag the spectrum paying the highest amount will be allowed to provide data as well as voice service through this technology in any part of the country,” the official added. WiMax is a technology that provides wireless transmission of data using a variety of transmission modes, from point-to-multipoint links to portable and fully mobile internet access.
The technology provides high speed broadband speed without the need for cables in urban as well as rural areas where laying optical fibres are expensive.
Bhesh Raj Kanel, chairman of Nepal Telecommunications Autho-rity and member of the committee, said the authority’s recommendation to the committee to introduce WiMax is being materialized after a long time. “The committee will come up with a final decision on frequency assignment and minimum pricing soon,” he added.
After two-and-a-half years, the committee led by Minister for Information and Communications Agni Sapkota has started to discuss WiMax technology, spectrum policies and its pricing. The committee will also come up with a decision on pricing for extra spectrum being occupied by operators and spectrum for 3G.
Government gears up for introduction of WiMax
KATHMANDU, MAY 22 -The government has started work on frequency management to introduce the worldwide interoperability for microwave access (WiMax) technology in the country and better manage spectrum provided to telecom operators. A meeting of the Radio Frequency Policy Determination Committee held after two-and-a-half years on Friday discussed spectrum affairs.
The committee formed under the Nepal Telecommunications Act-1997 headed by the Minister for Information and Communication (MoIC) gives a framework for spectrum management, including allocation, pricing and assignment criteria for service providers. Other members of the committee include secretaries of MoIC, Ministry of Home Affairs, Ministry of Tourism and Civil Aviation and Defense Ministry. Following the discussion of the committee, chances of introduction the new technology has increased. The meeting also conferred on increasing annual charge for the extra frequency being used by Nepal Telecom and Ncell.
“Through the meeting, we have been able to inform the committee about our recommendations on WiMax and redistribution of mobile frequency,” said Bhesh Raj Kanel, chairman of the Nepal Telecommunications Authority and a member of the committee. He said WiMax based services can be introduced after the committee decides on frequency allocation to the technology.
WiMAX is a telecommunications technology that provides fixed and fully mobile internet access and voice service. It allows service providers—telecom operators or internet service providers—to offer high-speed data service in urban as well as rural areas where laying of optical fibres are expensive or almost impossible. If the committee approves the recommendations made by the authority, it will help the authority manage frequencies in a planned manner, increase revenue for the government and open the door to new operators, according to the authority.
By setting aside 2.3 GHz and 3.3 GHz bandwidth for the WiMax technology, the authority had recommended the committee to determine frequency for introducing WiMax and increase five-fold the charge for additional frequencies used by telecom operators. However, the work on this front had been stalled following the resignation of then Prime Minister Madhav Kumar Nepal and political changes thereafter.
Last time, the meeting of the committee was held during the tenure of Krishna Bahadur Mahara as communications minister two-and-a-half years ago. Then, Shankar Pokhrel became the minister, but no meeting of the committee was held.
According to the authority, the committee will hold further discussions and come up with a decision on frequency allocation, pricing for the extra spectrum being occupied by operators and spectrum for 3G. It has also urged the committee to slash charges for the frequency being used for offering telecom service in rural areas.
As per the existing rules, the authority charges telecom operators Rs 14 million per MHz. Nepal Telecom and Ncell are using additional frequencies of 8.4 MHz and 4 MHz, respectively.
However, the committee on Friday’s meeting did not discussed issues related to 4G service and spectrum for it. The authority is carrying out study on 4G service.
“We will recommend the committee for the allocation of spectrum for 4G only based on the report of the study,” said Kanel.
It’s always struggle for rural telecom operators
KATHMANDU, MAY 19 -Although the telecommunication sector is thriving in urban areas, service providers in the rural sector are struggling for survival.
Rural telecommunications service (RTS) providers said investment in rural sector has low returns and that they are hit hard. The service providers have demanded that the government formulate appropriate policy to help them expand their services and make the sector more competent.
Subash Bajracharya, chief executive officer (CEO) of Smart Telecom Pvt Ltd, said there is a dire need of government’s intervention and formulation of appropriate policy to improve efficiency of rural service providers. He said the government should introduce subsidy packages to help the companies survive, as they are currently on the verge of collapse. There are three RTS providers in the country—Nepal Satellite, Smart Telecom and STM Telecom.
Similar is the story of another rural service provider STM Telecom. It is finding hard to carry on despite heavy investment. STM CEO Sunil Jakibanja said expanding services in rural areas require a huge investment, but the return is low. “A huge investment is required in rural telecommunication service and return is low as customers are less in number and service use is very nominal,” said Jakibanja.
Besides, big operators’ aggressive expansion drive has posed a threat to these rural operators. “It is obvious that customers are diverted towards big operators.”
Even though Smart Telecom’s investment has touched Rs 1 billion mark, it has only 80,000 customers as of now. On an average, a customer in rural areas uses Rs 100 per month, while their call frequencies are also nominal. Rural telecommunication has also become less attractive sector for investors, as they have to wait for at least 15 years to earn profits, say rural providers.
In the first phase, Smart Telecom has injected Rs 1 billion in infrastructure and is planning to invest and additional Rs 1.50 billion. “However, the current situation has forced investors to think twice before investing,” added Bajracharya added.
Also, low business activities in the rural sector have also affected the providers. “This entire problem is making RTS weak,” added Jakibanja.
Appellate panel to scan NT-UTL royalty row
KATHMANDU, MAY 18 -The Appellate Committee under the Ministry of Information and Communications is to examine the royalty row between the Nepal Telecommunications Authority (NTA) and United Telecom Limited (UTL).
“We will meet within a couple of days to go through the UTL affair,” said Dhan Raj Gyawali, under secretary at the ministry and member of the committee. He added that they had obtained information related to UTL’s case from the NTA.
The committee is headed by Jiban Hari Adhikari, secretary of the Judicial Council. Joint secretary at the ministry Narayan Regmi is one of the two members.
UTL, the first private sector telecom service provider, had appealed to the committee against the NTA’s directive to clear its committed royalty dues on April 28, the deadline of the 35-day notice to clear outstanding royalty dues. The company has not paid around Rs 900 million in committed royalty to the government as of the last fiscal year citing loss in business and demanding the same treatment as other operators.
According to the NTA, the company has committed to pay Rs 324.18 million as royalty to the government for basic telecom service in the current fiscal year.
On March 25, the NTA had written to UTL to clear its royalty dues within 35 days or face cancellation of its operating license. UTL had approached the committee as per the Telecommunication Act 1997, which allows telecom operators to appeal against the decision of the NTA.
A high level official at the authority said that the committee was just going through the motions and would not reach a decision any time soon. “Let us take the example of ADSL. There has not been any decision regarding the ADSL case filed by Nepal Telecom for a long time,” said the official.
However, Gyawali said that the ADSL and UTL cases were being considered by the committee.
The NTA official said that the chances of a final verdict against UTL were very slim as there had been pressure from India. Finance Minister Bharat Mohan Adhikari had assured visiting Indian External Affairs Minister SM Krishna that the UTL issue would be resolved “at an early date in accordance with the earlier understandings between the two governments”. However, even high-level officials are not aware of the understandings made between the two governments. “It is diplomatic language. We don’t know of any understanding,” added the official.
Out of the committed royalty for eight years (fiscal 2002-03 to 2009-10) amounting to Rs 1.24 billion, UTL has paid Rs 160.57 million and Rs 189.45 million was waived by the then royal regime in 2005. The NTA has been saying that the royalty dues of UTL would increase to more than Rs 1 billion except the royalty committed for the current fiscal year as it has been paying only 4 percent of the total income for three services — basic telecom, limited mobility service and data service.
UTL is a joint venture between three Indian telecom companies — Mahanagar Telephone Nigam (26.68 percent), Telecommunications Consultants India (26.66 percent) and Tata Communications (26.66 percent) — and local partner Nepal Ventures (20 percent). With Mahanagar Telephone Nigam and Telecommunications Consultants India being public sector undertakings, the issue was taken up strongly by Indian External Affairs Minister Krishna during his visit to Nepal in April.
Ncell cuts data service tariff
KATHMANDU, MAY 16 -
Ncell has slashed the tariff for its data service Ncell Connect. As per the revised rates, the charge for using large packages of 5,000 MB has been halved to Rs 1,999 with lifetime validity.
Similarly, the tariff for small data packages of 500 MB has been set at Rs 399 (80 paisa per MB) and for medium packages of 1,000 MB at Rs 699 (70 paisa per MB) with lifetime validity. Earlier, the charge for small and medium packages was Rs 500 and Rs 899 respectively with a validity period of one month.
Ncell CEO Pasi Kistinen said that as the internet was no longer a luxury and had become a necessity of modern times, the company was happy to help people get high speed internet access. He added that they were working towards increasing the speed to more than 7.2 Mbps.
According Ncell, for regular users who are not subscribers to the package service, the rate will remain at Rs 2 per MB. Ncell’s corporate communication manager Sanju Koirala said that the company had been providing high speed internet access of up to 3.6 Mbps and had 3G coverage in 15 locations across the country including the Everest region. Recently, a British mountaineer had tweeted to his wife from the top of Everest using Ncell’s data service. Ncell launched the Ncell Connect service in September last year.
NTA assigns additional spectrum to Smart Telecom
KATHMANDU, MAY 13 -
Nepal Telecommunications Authority (NTA), the regulating body of the telecom sector, is granting additional frequency to Smart Telecom, a domestic telecom operator. It decided to assign extra spectrum from the 900 MHz and 1,800 MHz bandwidth after Smart Telecom increased its subscriber base as per the NTA’s condition.
Smart Telecom will get 0.6 MHz spectrum from the 900 MHz bandwidth and 2.4 MHz or 4.4 MHz from the 1,800 MHz bandwidth. The operator’s subscriber based has surpassed the 80,000 mark. The company had started services with 2.4 MHz spectrum in 900 MHz bandwidth three years ago.
NTA Chairman Bhesh Raj Kanel said they are allocating additional frequency to Smart Telecom as it has met the preconditions. “We checked the number of subscribers through Visitor Location Registration (VLR) of the company and found that the company has maintained the required number of customers,” he said.
VLR is a network database that holds information about active and roaming wireless customers. “We will assign 0.6 MHz from 900 MHz bandwidth,” said Kanel. He added it had not been decided yet on whether to provide 2.4 MHz or 4.4 MHz frequency from 1,800 MHz bandwidth.
About two months ago, the company had twice sought additional frequency saying that the number of its customers had already crossed the 80,000 mark, but the authority had found it to be a false claim.
As of the first eight months of the current fiscal year, the subscriber base of Smart Telecom has increased over 90,000. The company has been demanding 2.4 MHz from 900 MHz bandwidth saying that it will cost it less to expand services to wider areas. However, the authority foes not have additional spectrum than 0.6 MHz, as major telecom operators have been occupying additional spectrum in this bandwidth.
“Less frequency means less capacity with base transcriber station (BTS) to offer service to customers and this has increased our investment,” said Subash Bajracharya, CEO of Smart Telecom. He added that the decision of NTA to assign additional frequency only after maintaining over 80,000 subscribers had increased financial burden as there was no good return from rural areas because of low spending power of customers.
If the NTA assigns additional 2.4 MHz from the 900 MHz bandwidth, the company will be able to offer service to 1,000 subscribers from one BTS. Currently, 2.4 MHz spectrum in use serves 225 customers per BTS. Smart Telecom has been offering services in various 25 districts with 54 BTS.
Slow GSM work slur on ZTE China
KATHMANDU, JUL 28 - Zhong Xing Telecommunication Equipment Company Limited, (ZTE) China, a global provider of telecom equipment, has been unable to work for the expansion of GSM mobiles as agreed with Nepal Telecom (NT) three years ago.
NT, the state owned telecom giant, had awarded the project to help it add 3.5 million new GSM subscribers by the end of July 2010 in three phases. However, ZTE started the second phase only three months ago.
“ZTE has started the second phase, which was supposed to complete last year, by setting up 450 BTS,” a source at the NT told the Post. “The main reason behind the degrading quality of the NT mobile service is the delay in the ZTE work,” the source added. “NT must look for other options now.”
NT had awarded the contract to ZTE for US dollars 54.5 million, under which it was responsible for installing new networks for GSM mobile phone services as well as 3G cellular networks based on W-CDMA protocol by July 2010. Under the second phase, NT recently distributed 150,000 SIM cards to SLC graduates.
“We are working on it and the second phase will complete by October,” said Surendra Prasad Thike, spokesperson of NT. Under phase one and two during the fiscal year 2008/9 and 2009/10, NT distributed 1.5 million SIM cards, according to the NT. By the end of the third phase, NT plans to add an additional 1.8 new subscribers for which ZTE would install 710 BTS in various places.
As per the Nepal Telecommunications Authority’s data on subscription of NT’s GSM service as of mid-April 2007, there is a total of 870,675 subscribers. The number of total GSM subscribers has increased to 3.73 million as of mid-April 2010.
“The subscription is increasing significantly but there must also be support to offer quality service to the customers,” said the source. “If the same tendency continues and the NT management remains mute, it will take two more years for the completion of this project and customers will continue to suffer with low quality service.”
ZTE is Nepal’s largest supplier of telecom equipment, including systems for CDMA, GSM and GPRS network services. NT is likely to award the contract for the next negation network (NGN) to ZTE as well, said the source.
Graham Bell gizmo links nation
KATHMANDU, JUL 15 - Telecommunication now connects all the 3,915 village development committees (VDCs) in the country. The last VDC to get telecom service was Sapata in Bajura. State-owned telecom giant Nepal Telecom (NT) started service in this VDC with VSAT technology.
“Now no VDC in the nation without a telephone connection,” said NT managing director Amar Nath Singh. “We will continue reaching core villages in the VDCs installing 150 VSATs in various parts of the country in the coming fiscal year.”
According to NT, its Satellite Service Directorate had speeded up expanding its telephone service in response to the government’s instruction to bring telephones to 199 VDCs without a phone link. So far, NT has installed 464 VSAT terminals (152 C-Band VSAT and 312 KU-Band VSAT). Apart from telephone service, the KU-Band VSAT can be used for offering internet service in rural areas. According to NT spokesperson Surendra Prasad Thike, the total number of its subscribers will reach 5.45 million by the end of the current fiscal year, including 3.96 million GSM users, 0.95 million CDMA users and 0.58 million landline customers.
Similarly, the total number of NT’s internet service subscribers has reached 250,000 of whom 41,000 are ADSL internet users. NT’s ADSL internet service has spread to 46 districts including Jumla. NT has finished installing equipment to provide ADSL service in 69 districts. “We will be providing ADSL service in all the districts by the end of the next fiscal year,” said Singh. “Composite service of voice-data-video service through NGN based fixed telephone lines in rural areas is also planned for the next fiscal year.”
Expansion of fixed lines based on next generation network (NGN) in rural areas, distribution of 1.8 million GSM and 0.6 million CDMA mobiles through a crash programme, laying of optical fibre connecting all the 75 districts and erection of 500 antennas in various public places are some of the programmes under NT’s plan for next year.
According to the Nepal Telecommunications Authority, there are 7.99 million telecom service subscribers in the country representing a tele-density of 28.50 percent.
NT at loggerheads with NTA
KATHMANDU,
JAN 06 - Despite Nepal Telecommunications Authority (NTA) decision to
assign 2.4 MHz bandwidth to Smart Telecom, Nepal Telecom (NT) on Tuesday
said that it will not return the spectrum.
"As
we have been utilising the spectrum, we cannot forfeit," said Surendra
Prasad Thike, spokesperson of the NT. Thike said that they were speeding
up the expansion of telecom service rapidly which does not allow them
to return the bandwidth to Smart Telecom.
On
Sunday, NTA-country's telecom regulatory body-had assigned the
frequency to Smart Telecom without prior notice to NT. NT has been
holding a total of 4.4 MHz bandwidth under the 900 MHz band since last
two years.
NT
termed the telecom regulatory body's decision to assign the
spectrum-that too without bringing it to NT's notice-unnatural. Thike
maintained the quality of telecom service will deteriorate if NT
returned the frequency. But there again is a catch.
If
NT refused to return the spectrum as demanded by NTA, both NT and Smart
Telecom would end up using the same bandwidth that will culminate in
disturbed services of both the operators, said an NTA official. NTA
decision however means that NT return 'the temporarily assigned spectrum
within three months' in July, 2009. NT has been holding 10.8 MHz (4.4
MHz under 900 MHz band and 6 MHz under 1800 MHz) than what was
originally assigned.
Experts
say, NTA is left with no other option but to shift 2.4 MHz bandwidth to
Smart Telecom for there is only 0.9 MHz bandwidth available under the
900 MHz band. In addition, the spectrum currently being temporarily held
by Spice Nepal is not sufficient enough for Smart Telecom for its
operations. Currently, Spice Nepal has been holding 2 MHz under 900 MHz
band and 2 MHz under 1800 MHz. But according to NTA Spokesman Kailash
Prasad Neupane, NT now cannot use the frequency that has been assigned
to Smart Telecom. "If the NT refused to follow the directives, we will
initiate legal action against NT."
The
telecom regulatory body had given the frequency to Smart Telecom to
operate rural telecom service in 398 VDCs of four development regions in
Nepal, except the Eastern Development Region. Smart Telecom launched
its commercial services from Nov 26, 2009.
NT, Chinese firm accused of playing foul
KATHMANDU, JUL 17 - Nepal Telecom Employee’s Union has accused the ZTE Corporation China and Nepal Telecom (NT) management of hatching a “plot” to bring down Nepal Telecom, a public company.
The union said the quality of service through equipment provided to NCell by the ZTE had been working fine, but the service of NT with the same equipment has been deteriorating.
According to the union, while the ZTE failed to make good its promises it made in the contract, the NT management has remained a mute spectator and not taking any restrictive measures for the implementation of the agreement despite the low performance of mobile network caused by the low performance of the ZTE equipment.
“The government must blacklist the vendor that does not work according to the agreement,” Saroj Kumar Dhungana, the president of the union, told a press conference on Saturday. “Even though the poor performance of the ZTE is evident, the management is in the process of awarding a tender to ZTE to introduce NGN.”
The union has also urged the management to offer quality service rather than expanding low quality service network.
“ZTE has not shown any interest in solving the problem of the 3.5 million capacity mobile system and CDMA equipment as agreed,” said Dhungana. “Moreover, ZTE is persuading the NT management to procure additional equipment to improve quality with help from political powers rather than fixing deficiencies pointed out by NT technicians.”
Members of the union said schemes like balance transfer and corporate call offer at Rs. 0.55 had failed because of the problem in ZTE’s equipment. Similarly, frequent problems in the recharge system and low backup holding capacity in the BTS are also problems caused by the “cheap” equipments offered by ZTE, they said.
“The process of acquiring low cost equipment through the Public Procurement Act was wrong,” said Ashok Shrestha, senior vice president of the union. “The kind of equipment provided by ZTE has worked well with Ncell.”
The union also warned that if the management failed to speed up the process to improve NT’s service quality, NT will be left far behind than other private telecom operators in a couple of years.
However, Surendra Prasad Thike, spokesperson of the NT refuted the Union’s allegation. “It is just their
perception,” said Thike.Stating quality enhancement is continued process, Thike said, “”NT is working closely with ZTE to address the problems related to the quality.”
KATHMANDU, JUL 17 - Nepal Telecom Employee’s Union has accused the ZTE Corporation China and Nepal Telecom (NT) management of hatching a “plot” to bring down Nepal Telecom, a public company.
The union said the quality of service through equipment provided to NCell by the ZTE had been working fine, but the service of NT with the same equipment has been deteriorating.
According to the union, while the ZTE failed to make good its promises it made in the contract, the NT management has remained a mute spectator and not taking any restrictive measures for the implementation of the agreement despite the low performance of mobile network caused by the low performance of the ZTE equipment.
“The government must blacklist the vendor that does not work according to the agreement,” Saroj Kumar Dhungana, the president of the union, told a press conference on Saturday. “Even though the poor performance of the ZTE is evident, the management is in the process of awarding a tender to ZTE to introduce NGN.”
The union has also urged the management to offer quality service rather than expanding low quality service network.
“ZTE has not shown any interest in solving the problem of the 3.5 million capacity mobile system and CDMA equipment as agreed,” said Dhungana. “Moreover, ZTE is persuading the NT management to procure additional equipment to improve quality with help from political powers rather than fixing deficiencies pointed out by NT technicians.”
Members of the union said schemes like balance transfer and corporate call offer at Rs. 0.55 had failed because of the problem in ZTE’s equipment. Similarly, frequent problems in the recharge system and low backup holding capacity in the BTS are also problems caused by the “cheap” equipments offered by ZTE, they said.
“The process of acquiring low cost equipment through the Public Procurement Act was wrong,” said Ashok Shrestha, senior vice president of the union. “The kind of equipment provided by ZTE has worked well with Ncell.”
The union also warned that if the management failed to speed up the process to improve NT’s service quality, NT will be left far behind than other private telecom operators in a couple of years.
However, Surendra Prasad Thike, spokesperson of the NT refuted the Union’s allegation. “It is just their
perception,” said Thike.Stating quality enhancement is continued process, Thike said, “”NT is working closely with ZTE to address the problems related to the quality.”
ILD calls become cheaper
KATHMANDU, JUN 03 - International long distance call rates have come down significantly with telecom serviceproviders coming up with attractive new schemes.
Many customers, whether of Nepal Telecom, Ncell or United Telecom, are enjoying the lowered tariff to call their children studying abroad or family members working in foreign countries as these three major telecom service providers have slashed international call rates to attract new customers.
"Till a few years ago, it used to cost Rs. 35 to call my son in the US," said Parbati Lamsal, a housewife from Jawalakhel, Lalitpur. "Now it is very cheap, so I call him everyday." The price war started about six months ago with United Telecom offering calls to India for Rs. 3 per minute.
After the re-branding of Mero Mobile to Ncell, Spice Nepal introduced a corporate offer that allows customers to make international calls for Rs. 4 to the US, Rs. 5 to India, China, Hong Kong, Singapore and Thailand and Rs. 6 to Malaysia and South Korea.
On May 14, Ncell introduced a scheme for international long distance calls that allows postpaid and prepaid customers to make calls at Rs. 6 to 10 various countries - the US, India, Canada, China, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Baharain, Saudi Arabia, South Korea, and Thailand.
"We offer quality service conveniently without customers having to dial an access code," said Sanju Koirala, corporate communication manager of Ncell. "We will continue bringing additional quality services at lower prices to our customers."
While making international calls under United Telecom's offer, its subscribers have to dial the code 1220 before the country code. It offers international calls to the US and Canada for Rs. 4, and to China, Singapore, Hong Kong and Thailand for Rs. 5. For, Taiwan, Pakistan and Bangladesh, United Telecom charges Rs. 8 per minute.
Following the launching of Ncell's scheme, Nepal Telecom on Tuesday also introduced a new tariff which allows its subscribers having international call facility to make international calls at Rs. 4 to seven countries and Rs. 6 to three other countries.
It costs Rs. 8 per minute to call Bangladesh, Pakistan, Israel and Taiwan and Rs. 10 per minute to call Japan and Russia. Nepal Telecom subscribers have to dial the access code 1424 to make calls under this scheme.
Surendra Prasad Thike, spokesperson of Nepal Telecom, said that they had reduced the call rates to compete with cheaper internet calls and also because the tariff has been declining in the international market following technological advancements and market expansion. "Competition among telecom service providers is also one of the reasons behind the tariff reduction," Thike added.
Spice to scale up Ncell ladder
KATHMANDU, MAY 11 - Spice Nepal, which re-branded Mero Mobile as Ncell on March 12, has come up with new plans to expand its customer network and services for corporate clients.
Thereafter, Ncell recently introduced a new corporate offer - closed user groups (CUGs), targeting the corporate and business segment, which according to Ncell has received very good response from the market and existing customers.
"The offer has been successful in attracting the corporate segment," said Mansur Khamidov, chief commercial officer of Ncell. "It allows customers to make as many calls as they want at just 60 paisa per minute within their group."
Under the CUG scheme, any Ncell number can be added to the CUG with an approval letter from the contract owner. Special on-net tariff of Rs.1.60, special data package, competitive rate for international SMS at Rs.5 and special international call rate starting from Rs. 4 to the United States, Rs. 5 to countries like India, China, Hong Kong,
Singapore and Thailand and up to Rs. 6 for making calls to Malaysia and South Korea, are some of the features the corporate offer holds. It costs Rs. 600 to subscribe to the corporate offer, wherein the subscriber also gets free talk-time worth Rs. 300.
The offer is the first of its kind in Nepal and one that allows the subscriber to make calls at a cheaper rate. Overwhelmed by the response, Ncell is also planning to roll out more attractive and suitable offerings to the corporate and business segment based on demand. It is working to offer 3G, special dedicated key account manager for each corporate client, bulk SMS service and Blackberry service.
A playing it close to the chest Khamidov said, he would not like to comment on the issue right now. "However, whenever there is a new service we will make an official announcement," he added.
Ncell has been trying to collect the requirements from the corporate segment to create services based on their demand. "We are flexible about providing world class services based on the requirement of the corporate sector clientele," said Khamidov.
NTA gives bandwidth to Smart Telecom
KATHMANDU, JUN 03 - International long distance call rates have come down significantly with telecom serviceproviders coming up with attractive new schemes.
Many customers, whether of Nepal Telecom, Ncell or United Telecom, are enjoying the lowered tariff to call their children studying abroad or family members working in foreign countries as these three major telecom service providers have slashed international call rates to attract new customers.
"Till a few years ago, it used to cost Rs. 35 to call my son in the US," said Parbati Lamsal, a housewife from Jawalakhel, Lalitpur. "Now it is very cheap, so I call him everyday." The price war started about six months ago with United Telecom offering calls to India for Rs. 3 per minute.
After the re-branding of Mero Mobile to Ncell, Spice Nepal introduced a corporate offer that allows customers to make international calls for Rs. 4 to the US, Rs. 5 to India, China, Hong Kong, Singapore and Thailand and Rs. 6 to Malaysia and South Korea.
On May 14, Ncell introduced a scheme for international long distance calls that allows postpaid and prepaid customers to make calls at Rs. 6 to 10 various countries - the US, India, Canada, China, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Baharain, Saudi Arabia, South Korea, and Thailand.
"We offer quality service conveniently without customers having to dial an access code," said Sanju Koirala, corporate communication manager of Ncell. "We will continue bringing additional quality services at lower prices to our customers."
While making international calls under United Telecom's offer, its subscribers have to dial the code 1220 before the country code. It offers international calls to the US and Canada for Rs. 4, and to China, Singapore, Hong Kong and Thailand for Rs. 5. For, Taiwan, Pakistan and Bangladesh, United Telecom charges Rs. 8 per minute.
Following the launching of Ncell's scheme, Nepal Telecom on Tuesday also introduced a new tariff which allows its subscribers having international call facility to make international calls at Rs. 4 to seven countries and Rs. 6 to three other countries.
It costs Rs. 8 per minute to call Bangladesh, Pakistan, Israel and Taiwan and Rs. 10 per minute to call Japan and Russia. Nepal Telecom subscribers have to dial the access code 1424 to make calls under this scheme.
Surendra Prasad Thike, spokesperson of Nepal Telecom, said that they had reduced the call rates to compete with cheaper internet calls and also because the tariff has been declining in the international market following technological advancements and market expansion. "Competition among telecom service providers is also one of the reasons behind the tariff reduction," Thike added.
Spice to scale up Ncell ladder
KATHMANDU, MAY 11 - Spice Nepal, which re-branded Mero Mobile as Ncell on March 12, has come up with new plans to expand its customer network and services for corporate clients.
Thereafter, Ncell recently introduced a new corporate offer - closed user groups (CUGs), targeting the corporate and business segment, which according to Ncell has received very good response from the market and existing customers.
"The offer has been successful in attracting the corporate segment," said Mansur Khamidov, chief commercial officer of Ncell. "It allows customers to make as many calls as they want at just 60 paisa per minute within their group."
Under the CUG scheme, any Ncell number can be added to the CUG with an approval letter from the contract owner. Special on-net tariff of Rs.1.60, special data package, competitive rate for international SMS at Rs.5 and special international call rate starting from Rs. 4 to the United States, Rs. 5 to countries like India, China, Hong Kong,
Singapore and Thailand and up to Rs. 6 for making calls to Malaysia and South Korea, are some of the features the corporate offer holds. It costs Rs. 600 to subscribe to the corporate offer, wherein the subscriber also gets free talk-time worth Rs. 300.
The offer is the first of its kind in Nepal and one that allows the subscriber to make calls at a cheaper rate. Overwhelmed by the response, Ncell is also planning to roll out more attractive and suitable offerings to the corporate and business segment based on demand. It is working to offer 3G, special dedicated key account manager for each corporate client, bulk SMS service and Blackberry service.
A playing it close to the chest Khamidov said, he would not like to comment on the issue right now. "However, whenever there is a new service we will make an official announcement," he added.
Ncell has been trying to collect the requirements from the corporate segment to create services based on their demand. "We are flexible about providing world class services based on the requirement of the corporate sector clientele," said Khamidov.
NTA gives bandwidth to Smart Telecom
KATHMANDU,
JAN 05 - Nepal Telecommunications Authority (NTA) -- the regulator of
the telecom service -- has provided 2.4 MHz bandwidth under 900 MHz band
to Smart Telecom for operating rural telecom service. A board meeting
of the regulatory body held on Sunday took the decision to this effect
amidst a situation in which the telecom operators are not returning the
underutilised frequencies in their possession saying that they intend to
expand their service networks.
"We
have decided to provide the spectrum as agreed," said Anand Raj Khanal,
director at the NTA. "The frequency is now available to the Smart
Telecom which was being held temporarily by the Nepal Telecom (NT)."
NT,
the state-owned telecom giant, has been holding additional 10.8 MHz (
4.4 MHz under 900 MHz band and 6 MHz under 1800 MHz) in addition to the
frequency originally assigned. Khanal said that they snatched the
spectrum back from the NT as the coverage being held by Spice Nepal was
not enough for Smart Telecom. Spice Nepal has been holding 2 MHz under
900 MHz band and 2 MHz under 1800 MHz.
However,
the NT had been refusing to return the frequency saying that it needed
the spectrum for service expansion. The argument is likely to affect the
rural telecom service expansion as envisaged by the government.
In
July 2009, NTA had urged the additional spectrum holders to return the
frequencies within three months. They had obtained the frequencies
temporarily for a period of six months.
"The
spectrums were provided only for temporary use and they have not even
renewed request for the extension of use," said Kailash Neupane,
spokesperson of the NTA. "As the renewal has already been delayed we can
simply take the frequencies back without having to issue any prior
notice."
After
providing the 2.4 MHz to the Smart Telecom, chances of interference in
services of both operators have increased. The regulator has promised to
provide 2x2.4 MHz bandwidth in 900 MHz band to the Smart Telecom once
the infrastructure for providing telephone service is made available in
50% of the VDCs, as stipulated, in the license.
The
new telecom service operator -- Smart Telecom had received the license
on July 1, 2008 to operate rural telecom service in the 398 Village
Development Committees of four development regions in Nepal, except for
the Eastern Development Region. Smart Telecom has already launched
commercial services from Nov 26, 2009 and reached 10 VDCs so far.
The
company aims to offer the service via landline using VSAT technology in
100 VDCs and wireless service through GSM technology in 298 VDCs. Smart
Telecom is the sixth telephone service provider in Nepal.
Meanwhile,
the telecom regulator agency is preparing to conduct a survey of the
potential of the mobile telecommunications service market in the
country. "The objective of the survey is to conduct the feasibility
study of a new mobile service operator," said Neupane. He said that the
authority had already invited tenders in this regard.
Frequency renewal charge to be revised
KATHMANDU,
DEC 18 - The Nepal Telecommunic-ations Authority (NTA) is reviewing the
frequency renewal charge after which telecom operators holding more
frequencies than assigned will be charged five times the normal rate.
The
national telecom regulator said that it had recommended to the Ministry
of Information and Communication that the price of frequencies be
increased with the view of stopping telecom operators from keeping
frequencies provided for temporary use.
The
NTA charges telecom operators Rs. 14 million per MHz of bandwidth. The
operators, namely Nepal Telecom, Spice Nepal, UTL and Nepal Satellite
have been holding more frequencies than they need, said a source at the
authority.
Once
the ministry approves the proposal, telecom operators who have been
delaying returning temporary frequencies citing reasons of expansion and
upgrading will be charged five times the usual rate. "A committee under
the leadership of the information and communication minister is
studying our suggestion," said NTA president Bhesh Raj Kanel. "We will
implement the provision as soon as the ministry approves it."
According
to an NTA source, Nepal Telecom is using only 25-30 percent of the
frequencies of the total 33 MHz it holds, and Spice Nepal is using 30-35
percent of 19 MHz. UTL, which had asked for additional frequencies a
few months ago, has been using less than 10 percent of the 18.4 MHz it
is occupying.
The
source said that the new provision would help the authority to manage
frequencies in a planned manner, increase revenue for the government and
open the door to new operators.
"We
have provided additional frequencies for only six months, but telecom
operators have been holding them without using them," said Kanel. "We
will assign 2.4 MHz to Smart Telecom within one and a half months after
getting it back from other telecom operators."
According
to Kanel, the frequency assigned permanently to Nepal Telecom allows it
to expand its customer base to 10 million, and Spice Nepal can use its
frequency to increase the number of its customers to 4 to 4.5 million.
As of Oct. 15, 2009, Nepal Telecom had 4.7 million subscribers and Spice
Nepal 2 million.
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