Kathmandu, Sept 7: United Telecom Limited (UTL), first private sector telecom company of the country, has acquired unified license, finally. The company had been eyeing for the permit for over last four years and the government had also decided to issue the license to the company. However; UTL had not been able to take it mainly because of its failure to comply with the government set provision to pay annual instalment of committed royalty.
The Nepal Telecommunications Authority (NTA) on April 11, 2013 had decided to issue unified license to Smart Telecom and UTL. The company was issued licence on Monday (September 5) after it paid annual instalment of Rs 204 million on Friday. Going by the government set provision, the company was supposed to pay the amount within mid-July 2016.
UTL has 80 percent investment from Indian investors—India’s Telecommunications Consults India Limited (26.66%), Tata Communications Limited (26.66%), Mahanagar Nigam Limited (26.68%)—and remaining 20 percent is owned by Nepali investor—Nepal Ventures Pvt. It has over half million subscriber base and holds 2% shares in voice and 0.47% shares in internet service.
After, Ncell, Nepal Telecom and Smart Telecom, UTL is fourth telecom company to get permission to operate GSM mobile service nationwide. It is expected entry of UTL into GSM market will increase competition among telecom companies, if the company expand service aggressively. To this regard, the company will require huge investment as it existing infrastructure is basically based on CDMA technology.
At present, UTL has been providing ‘limited mobility’ technology based service in 110 cities of 40 districts. After acquiring unified license, the company can operate all services including GSM, CDMA and fixed lines nationwide.
There are six telecom companies in Nepal. All 6 service providers have been issued permit at different times with different license conditions. CG Communications (Gramin Tel) and Nepal Satellite Telecom (Hello) are rural telecom service providers and Gramin Tel has been showing its interest to acquire the unified license.
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