NT pays 3G frequency fee

KATHMANDU, Jan 28: 

Nepal Telecom (NT) on Friday paid Rs 480.70 million to Nepal Telecommunications Authority (NTA) as 3G frequency fee.

Although NTA had fixed fee of Rs 1.44 billion for the period between 2006 and 2012, the state-owned operator paid only Rs 480.70 million stating that it started commercial operation of 3G service in 2010 only.

As per the newly implemented Radio Frequency Policy 2012, NT needs to pay Rs 240 million a year for using 2X10 MHz of 3G spectrum for six years. 

“We have clear 3G spectrum fee that we owed to NTA. We paid Rs 480.70 million to the telecom sector regulator as per the decision taken by our board meeting,” said Gunakeshari Pradhan, spokesperson for NT.

The state-owned operator has been saying that it incurred losses in the early years of 3G service operation. NT has also been saying that the determined fee was too high compared to the revenue it generated from the service.

NTA on November 22 asked both NT and Ncell to clear their outstanding dues till 2012/13 within three months

The frequency policy requires operators to clear fixed frequency fee within three months of the end of every fiscal year. However, because of the delay in the implementation of the policy, the government was failing to get any revenue from the service. 

Ananda Raj Khanal, director of NTA, said both the operators will have to clear the dues as stated in the policy. Saying that NT has only made partial payment, Khanal said the regulator will direct NT to make full payment at the earliest.

Likewise, NTA has asked private operator Ncell to pay Rs 1.20 billion as 3G frequency fee. 

The authority had assigned 3G spectrum to NT in 2006/07 and to Ncell a year later. 

In the lack of policy on 3G frequency, both the operators had been operating the service without paying any fee to the government so far. 

Source: The Kathmandu Post