Government permit must for antenna towers over 7 metres
KATHMANDU, OCT 18 -
The government has made it mandatory for telecom companies and TV and radio stations to get permission to install antenna towers more than 7 m tall.
Likewise, telecom and other companies will need to get a permit from the intra-ministerial committee that the government plans to set up to expand their optical fibre cable network, according to an executive order published in Nepal Gazette on Monday. The proposed committee will facilitate the telecom and broadcasting sector and promote infrastructure sharing among companies.
The planned Telecommunication Infrastructure Promotion Committee, which will be headed by the Minister for Information and Communications, will also discourage telecom and broadcasting companies from erecting towers wherever they feel like it. These companies have been installing towers “haphazardly” as per their convenience by obtaining approval from different agencies.
“Telecom operators will not be allowed to erect towers above 7 m without permission from the committee regardless of the location,” said Ananda Raj Khanal, director of the Nepal Telecommunications Authority (NTA). He added that the committee, which will include the NTA chairman, will issue the permit within two months after studying the application to build towers or other infrastructure.
The committee will include the secretaries from the Communications, Forest, Environment, Physical Planning, Energy and Land Reform ministries as members. The secretary of the National Planning Commission, a joint secretary of the Ministry of Communications and three persons representing telecom and broadcasting companies will also sit on the committee.
The Communications Ministry said the new decision was targeted at setting a standard for building telecom and broadcasting towers and managing the use of telecom infrastructure spread over different parts of the country. A guideline for sharing infrastructure will also be introduced to help reduce the cost for service expansion and operation to telecom operators.
The notice has also mentioned carrying out a study to establish a communications infrastructure development company to manage the existing infrastructure and develop an optical fibre network.
Telecom companies like Nepal Telecom and Ncell have been showing interest in sharing infrastructure. As per the notice, companies can share their infrastructure based on the directive to be issued. In case the owner refuses to share its equipment with other companies, they can apply to the committee whose decision will be binding.
The NTA has been working to introduce a guideline on sharing telecom infrastructure for a long time. With the publication of the government order, its efforts seem to have been wasted. A ministry official said the NTA could include new issues in the directive being formulated or the committee might draft a new one.
Source: The Kathmandu Post
