Cabinet endorses broadband policy
KATHMANDU:
The government has finally introduced a broadband policy with focus on broadband infrastructure development and increasing access to high-speed internet services in the country. A meeting of the Economic Infrastructure Committee of the Cabinet on Sunday endorsed the policy.
Despite numerous talks regarding urgency of the policy, it had remained in planning phase for the last five years. The approved ‘National Broadband Policy 2015’ is considered as the key for development of broadband infrastructure, high-speed data connectivity, implementation of e-governance and bridging the digital divide by expanding broadband internet services.
Shanta Raj Subedi, secretary at the Office of the Prime Minister and Council of Ministers, said that the committee meeting approved the policy with some changes in the draft that was forwarded by the Ministry of Information and Communications (MoIC).
“The changes are being incorporated and we will send the approved policy to the MoIC soon,” he added.
Expansion of broadband infrastructure to all 75 districts, making broadband connection available in rural areas and reduction of the cost of high-speed data services are some basic objectives of the policy, as per the draft policy that was tabled in the Cabinet for approval.
Even as there has been significant growth in telephone service coverage, the country is yet to witness any remarkable development in broadband connection front. Lack of broadband infrastructure linking rural parts is considered as the basic constraint for this.
According to the draft policy, the standard speed of broadband connection will be fixed at 512Mbps and the entry level broadband connection will be brought down to at least 3.5 per cent of per capita income. Currently, broadband service costs around 17 per cent of per capita income, which stood at an estimated Rs 71,305 in last fiscal.
“Basically the policy aims at raising access to broadband internet services and making those services cheaper,” said an official at MoIC.
As per the official, they had proposed that access to broadband internet be increased to at least 30 per cent of the population and 45 per cent of households by 2018. “We are yet to see what changes have been made in the policy.”
What makes broadband service important is its impact. A study of World Bank had found that low- and middle-income countries experienced ‘about 1.38 percentage point increase in GDP for every 10 per cent increase in broadband penetration between 2000 and 2006’. Even as there is no official data on broadband penetration, it is expected to have reached around 15 per cent.
To achieve the targets set by the policy, MoIC plans to prepare a roadmap to ensure availability of spectrum, promote infrastructure sharing among telecom companies and internet service providers, and execute low-cost subsidy programme to take broadband internet service to unserved areas.
A report titled ‘The State of Broadband 2014: Broadband for All’ published by Broadband Commission for Digital Development has stated that Nepal’s household level internet penetration rate stood at 4.9 per cent in 2013, as against 13 per cent in India, 15.5 per cent in Bhutan and 8.3 per cent in Pakistan.
Source: THT
