Govt to conduct fresh study on infra sharing

KATHMANDU, MAR 01 -

The government is working to carry out a fresh study on telecom infrastructure sharing. A recent board meeting of the Nepal Telecommunications Authority ( NTA ) decided to hire a consultant to hold the study.

Although infrastructure sharing has been made mandatory for capable telecom companies, it has not yet come in practice due to the lack of a clear a guideline. The executive order on “Telecommunication Infrastructure Development and Sharing” issued five months ago had decided to implement the provision of sharing of telecom and broadcasting infrastructure.

“The consultant will compile information on the existing infrastructure capacity of telecom companies and recommend how it can be used commonly among them,” said Kailash Prasad Neupane, spokesperson for NTA . He added the study would also determine the types of infrastructure that can be shared and suggest a way for effective management. Two major telecom companies—Nepal Telecom and Ncell—have long been showing interest in sharing infrastructure. NTA officials said even small operators—United Telecom Limited (UTL), Smart Telecom, Nepal Satellite Telecom and STM Telecom—are interested on common use of infrastructure to avoid big investment.

Normally, telecom infrastructure sharing means sharing of tower, base transceiver stations, microwave radio equipment, optical fibre, antenna and generator, among others. UTL, Smart Telecom and STM Telecom are also planning to take the cellular service nationwide after acquiring unified telecom licence.

As NTA officials, the long-planned work on devising a rule on infrastructure sharing delayed due to the absence of a chairman at NTA . After the Supreme Court issued a stay order against Digambar Jha’s appointment as NTA chairman, the government recently gave the legal power to four existing NTA board members to hold board meetings and take necessary decisions.

The concept of infrastructure sharing is not new and NTA has already been working on it. A study conducted by NTA in 2010 had suggested operators to share towers in the first phase and other equipment like microwave link and optical fibre, among others, in the later stage. It had also concluded that infrastructure sharing among telecom companies can be more effective if the operators establish a separate company to oversee the matter.

According to Nepaune, the new study became a prerequisite as the order had decided to prepare a guideline for sharing infrastructure, focusing on bringing down the cost for service expansion and operation. The order published in the Nepal Gazette had also talked about carrying out a study to establish a communications infrastructure development company to manage the existing infrastructure and develop infrastructure like optical fibre network.

The executive order had also made it mandatory for telecom companies and TV and radio stations to get government permission to install antenna towers that are more than 7m tall and lay optical fibre links.

For issuing the permission and promotion of infrastructure sharing among telecom companies, a 13-member intra-ministerial “Telecommunication Infrastructure Promotion Committee” has also been planned.

Source: The Kathmandu Post