NTA least bothered about errant ISPs
KATHMANDU:
Nepal Telecommunications Authority (NTA) has failed to take actions against internet service providers (ISPs) that neither pay the revenue nor keep it updated about the customer base they have. This has resulted in revenue loss to the government.
That is not all, as errant ISPs do not provide their customers data to NTA, the telecom regulator has also been failing to give clear picture on internet penetration rate in the country.
The most recent Management Information System (MIS) report published by the authority shows that total data penetration rate in the country touched 34.09 per cent by mid-September this year.
However, same report also shows that out of 27 ISPs in the list, 24 ISPs did not submit the updated records on their customers.
The companies that failed to give data to the government include major ISPs — Subisu Cable Net, Mercantile Communications, Broadlink Network and Communication and Worldlink Communications, among others.
As per NTA record, there are 42 ISPs in the country, including six telecom companies that are also licensed to provide internet service.
However, hardly a dozen of them are running business and many are out of contact and owe revenue to the government. For instance, Iplus, an ISP, has not paid royalty and fee to the Rural Telecommunications Development Fund for the last two fiscal years.
“Absconding ISPs have been a major problem for the last few years as they exist only on record but are not in contact,” said a high level official at NTA.
He said that with the arrival of new NTA chairman, they are hopeful of tracking down errant ISPs and know their situations, as such companies did not even submit annual audit reports as provisioned in the law. After Iplus failed to be contacted despite being issued numerous notices, NTA few months ago cancelled its operating licence.
Many ISPs had entered in the market during the last one decade because of low licence fee and huge expectations in the business.
“The possibility of illegal call by pass also attracted people into this business to make fast buck,” said an official of Internet Service Providers Association of Nepal.
The official added such ISPs, however, could not sustain owing to police cracking down on illegal voice over internet protocol (VoIP) and increased competition in the data market.
Last year, NTA had scrapped the operating licence of Global Internet Service after it was found engaging in illegal VoIP business.
A case regarding involvement of Netplus Technology, an ISP, in illegal call by pass, is also under consideration at the Nepal Telecommunications Authority.
Earlier, it was also found that Netplus had distributed internet connections without keeping a record of the customers and the bandwidth provided to them.
Source: THT
