'I will be working on improving service quality of mobile calls'

The telecom regulator — Nepal Telecommunications Authority — has got a new chief after a gap of nearly two years. This has raised expectations in the telecom industry and also among customers of a speedy development of the sector. Validating the government decision, the Supreme Court last month upheld the appointment of the new chairman scrapping cases filed against the appointment. Ramesh Shrestha of The Himalayan Times spoke to Digambar Jha, Chairman of the authority regarding his plans on improving the mobile service quality, expansion of service coverage to rural areas, cost of services and other issues.

What are the problems that you see in the telecom sector and how do you plan to move ahead?

Quality of service (QoS) of mobile calls has remained a major concern for long. I will be working on improving service quality of mobile calls that has reached a wider population of the country. Going by the existing provision, telecom companies have to meet the QoS set by NTA and charge customers for that service. But as you see, the service being provided by telecom companies is not up to the mark. Customers have to dial three times to get connected and spend Rs three, whereas it should have been possible within one call at Re one. In my view, the income of the telecom companies is increasing three-fold because of their bad services because customers have to make more calls. Directly or indirectly, they are charging customers more. I will not let this happen now and carry out strict monitoring.

Would you please share on what NTA is planning to do to increase service coverage and bring the cost of telecom services down?

We will be focusing on development of information superhighway. In this regard, my first priority will be to make maximum utilisation of Rural Telecommunication Development Fund (RTDF) resources with focus on e-governance and incorporating information technology in sectors like health, education and agriculture. Due to the failure to provide timely information many trekkers in Nepal died because of the impact of the ‘Hudhud’ cyclone. If we had telecom service in different places along the Annapurna trekking route, we could have saved the lives of those unfortunate tourists. We have already started work on utilisation of the fund. As a part of it, we will hire a consultant and carry out a study. Be it voice or data, companies are normally expanding their service to areas where business is viable. Their basic target is to provide service and earn profit. We want to make telecom service available in rural areas by giving subsidy to telecom companies which will also make service cost cheaper.


And what about the long planned infrastructure sharing provision?

Connecting all districts with optical fibre cable and infrastructure sharing are also among my priorities. These are a must to reduce cost of capital investment of companies and cut down the price of services. There is also a problem of power crisis. So, we will make a provision based on which companies will be able to share infrastructure such as optical fibre and towers. It will help companies in a way that they will not have to make separate investments to install towers to take their service to any particular area. This in a way will also help maintain quality service as companies will be bearing the cost for operating the towers jointly such as for uninterrupted power supply.


Will the government be able to connect all districts with fibre within one year as planned?

We do not want duplication on extension of such network. So, we are working on carrying out a GIS survey and currently we are compiling information of existing towers and optical fibre extended by telecom companies. This will reveal the current scenario of telecom infrastructure and help us know which areas of the country have service coverage and which do not. After that we will implement a project to link those areas which are yet to be connected with optical fibre link and introduce a provision of infrastructure sharing. We have a plan to reach such areas under design, build and operate (DBO) model. However, the main thing will depend on the study of the consultant that will carry out the survey. The National Broadband Policy which is in the pipeline has also give priority to extension of fibre optic across the country.

How long will it take to introduce the broadband policy, as it has remained in the pipeline for a long time?

We have received many inputs from stakeholders and they have been incorporated in the policy. However, Nepal Telecom is yet to give its feedback. We asked Nepal Telecom today to give its suggestions within two days. We are planning to send the policy to the Ministry of Information and Communications for endorsement before the SAARC Summit begins.

Price of internet is considered expensive in Nepal. What will you do to bring down the cost?

This is true that data service is expensive in Nepal. I have received many complaints on data service being expensive. As it is an open market, we cannot dictate the companies to fix their rates. But there has to be some guideline and operators should not make more than 20 per cent profit on their investment. If a company makes a profit of more than 20 per cent it is called ‘black-marketing’. To fix this issue, we will first have to check their expenses or cost, which is also our right and duty. If their investment is really high, we cannot bring down the cost. There is also a possibility of slashing the cost of data service through infrastructure sharing provision and use of satellite connection to rural areas. What we want to do is to make high quality service available at a cheaper rate.


It is reported that NTA is also working towards making call rates from India to Nepal cheaper. Is it so?

We are working on it. Discussions with companies like Nepal Telecom and Ncell have also been held about interconnection charge. It costs Rs three per minute to call India, but why does it cost IRs 12 to make a call to Nepal through Indian service providers? I have heard that an Indian telecom company has already cut the price for calls to Nepal. I am hopeful that there will be some good news regarding this issue soon. Cost of call rate to Nepal from India will come down by 50 per cent soon. It is estimated that around 70 per cent of calls from India to Nepal is made by Nepalis who have gone there for different purposes including studies, medical treatment, pilgrimage and employment.


Will NTA also work on cutting down call prices to Nepal from other countries like Malaysia, Saudi Arabia and Qatar?

In the first stage, we have a plan to reduce call rate from India to Nepal and later the price will also be slashed for calls from countries like Malaysia, Saudi Arabia and Qatar as many Nepalis work in those countries. As I am yet to study more on that issue, I do not want to comment more on interconnection charge issue. If we cut down the termination charge heavily, it might also leave a negative impact on the government’s revenue generation. For domestic interconnection, there is already a guideline. We are planning to carry out monitoring to reduce network congestion. There should be fair competition among operators. To make the market competitive, unified licence provision has also been introduced. NTA will remain alert in controlling unfair competition in the market.

Source: THT