Next hearing after written reply from defendants: SC

KATHMANDU, FEB 04 -

Responding to the writ petitions concerning the unified telecom licence, the Supreme Court ( SC ) on Sunday, terming the case ‘a serious one’, said the next hearing would take place only after all the defendants furnish their written reply. The apex court has also placed the petitions on priority basis.

The government’s plan to issue the unified licence to small telecom operators has been challenged in the court, arguing the government’s decision is against the law. According to Advocate Narayan Prasad Devkota, one of the petitioners, the court decided to give a final verdict after written clarification from the defendants, including telecom operators. “With the court keeping the case on its priority list, we hope a decision soon,” he said.

The Prime Minister’s Office and the Council of Ministers, Ministry of Information and Communications, Nepal Telecommunications Authority (NTA) and telecom companies including Nepal Telecom, Ncell, United Telecom Limited (UTL), Smart Telecom and STM Telecom have been named defendants in the writs.

Two separate writs have been filed in SC against the unified licence — one by Devokta and another by a trio of Advocate Uttam Shrestha, Laxman Thapaliya and Prabin Shahi — seeking cancellation of the provision, arguing the government’s decision to issue the licence is against the Telecommunication Act 1997.

The Ministry of Inform-ation and Communications introduced the unified licence in May last year in a bid to provide a level playing field to small telecom companies. And, telecom companies like UTL and Smart Telecom had also applied for the licence. NTA officials said the work on issuance of the licence has been halted due to the absence of a chairman at NTA and SC going through the case.

Introduced in the name of ‘basic telecom service’, the unified licence provision allows operators to provide multiple telecom services — local telephone, domestic trunk telephone, international long distance and lucrative cellular mobile telephone.

An NTA official said they had targeted to issue unified licences to eligible companies within first year of introduction of the new licensing regime. “It has already been eight months, but we could not do that for the SC issuing a stay order against new NTA chairman’s appointment and the unified licence issue also reaching the court,” the official said.

The New spectrum policy — Telecommunications Radio Frequency Distribution and Pricing Policy 2012 — introduced four months ago had also targeted to issue unified licence and auction the spectrum to bring at least two new 3G service operators.

Currently, Nepal Telecom and Ncell are providing 3G service. However, even the new policy has been criticised by operators saying the 3G fee fixed is expensive.

Source: The Kathmandu Post