NTA to invite tenders for optical fibre network by this FY-end

The Nepal Telecommunications Authority (NTA) has stated that it would invite tenders for expansion of the optical fibre network in all the country’s districts within the current fiscal year. The regulatory body is preparing to seek suggestions from the Public Procurement Monitoring Office (PPMO) for calling requests for proposals for the project.

The District Optical Fibre Network Programme was launched two years ago, however, it has not able to move ahead as anticipated. The government has planned to extend optical fibre connections to all 75 districts by 2014 to provide access to high speed broadband data service.


“Since the project costs millions of rupees, we will seek suggestions from the PPMO to prevent criticism later on,” said NTA chairman Bhesh Raj Kanel. He added that the tender documents prepared by the authority were being reviewed by a public procurement expert before they would be sent to the PPMO for its approval.

Under the least subsidy model, the authority plans to call for proposals for the expansion plan in two phases, one for the eastern part of the country and the other for the western part by allocating Rs 4 billion. However, the final model will be decided later by the authority board. “The authority will write to the PPMO in a week after receiving the expert’s feedback,” said Kanel. He added that the authority would also the seek final go-ahead from the cabinet or the Ministry of Information and Telecommunications after incorporating the suggestions, if any, of the PPMO.

The authority will obtain money for the project from the Rural Telecommunication Development Fund which contains around Rs. 3.15 billion currently. The entire project is expected to cost Rs 8 billion to Rs 10 billion.  “Any ISP or telecom operator possessing the required technical capability and quoting the least amount will be awarded the contract,” said Purushottam Khanal, director of the authority. He added that the authority expected to invite tenders by the end of June.

The project has targeted expanding the optical fibre network through the Mid-Hill Highway which is under construction. Most of the East-West Highway has been connected by optical fibre of Nepal Telecom (NT). Apart from NT, Ncell, United Telecom and Subisu have laid optical fibre cables in different areas for their own purposes.

Kanel said that there would be no duplication of efforts by the project and it would not lay optical fibre cables where telecom operators have already expanded their networks. “This project also aims to share infrastructure among operators which will ultimately help bring the service cost down for end customers,” he added.

Telecom operators and internet service providers have been spending huge sums of money separately to expand access in the same areas. Expansion of the optical fibre network will help service providers to extend their services through a common medium for all telecom service providers and ISPs.

State-owned telecom operator NT has been taking an interest in the government’s optic fibre plan. NT has almost completed laying optical fibre cables on the East-West Highway spanning 25 districts. It is now planning to expand its service along the north-south corridor roads by laying 3,000 km of optical fibre cables in collaboration with the Nepal Electricity Authority and 800 km on its own.