Unified licence allows holders to operate multiple telecom services, including nationwide GSM service operation. Even the board members of Nepal Telecommunications Authority accept the sector has not been able to get results as expected from the new licensing regime. “Cases regarding the licence system were filed in the court, and the NTA is still facing the absence of a chairman to make crucial decisions,” said Dhan Raj Gyawali, an NTA board member. He said the licence is just a permit and there is a need for formulating other rules to encourage operators.
With at least two companies not obtaining the licence, the government’s plan to auction 3G spectrum as planned in the frequency policy is yet to be materialised.
NTA officials said Smart Telecom has failed to expand its service due to internal ownership dispute. “As for UTL, the authority is all set to make an inquiry on why the company is not picking the permit,” one of the NTA officials said.
After the NTA failed to implement a number of its decisions effectively, including the decision to give unified licence to Smart and UTL, NTA employees’ union has barred the NTA board from holding meetings and making decisions since last Sunday.
After the union’s protest, a meeting of the NTA board was held at the Ministry of Information and Communications on Monday, which had decided to direct Nepal Telecom (NT) pay Rs 20 for renewing its GSM mobile licence. The NTA official said as an impact of the union raising questions over the reliability of NTA’s decision, the authority is also preparing to direct NT pay Rs 3 billion in delay charge.
The Telecommunication Regulation allows the government to impose 15 percent penalty if any NTA licencee fail to apply for licence renewal paying the set fee three months before its permit expires. NT’s permit is expiring in May this year.
After the government decided to grant the unified licence to Smart Telecom and UTL in April last year, UTL had immediately made an up-front payment of Rs 102.7 million as licence fee.
Even as Smart acquired the licence making a full payment, UTL had lagged behind due to a number of cases related to the permit filed in the Supreme Court. However, the court in September 2013 allowed the government to implement the unified licence by scrapping writs filed against the decision.
As per original plan of Smart Telecom, its service was supposed to be available in Kathmandu Valley by September last year. Officials at Smart and UTL were not available for comment.
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