NTA renews Nepal Satellite Telecom licence

KATHMANDU, FEB 17 -

Nepal Telecommunications Authority (NTA) has renewed the operating licence of Nepal Satellite Telecom (NST), the operator of the Hello Nepal brand, for the next five years.

The authority on Friday also extended the time for NST to expand its services to Far- and Mid-western regions by one year.

A meeting of the recently-formed stopgap committee on Friday took a decision to this effect, according to NTA Director Ananda Raj Khanal. The committee, formed to take “essential decisions” at NTA in the absence of a chairman, includes four NTA board members, including Khanal. “We have also provided an extra one year time to the company for completing its service expansion under the second phase,” said Khanal.

As per the licence condition, NST has to first expand its services in rural areas in three phases to be eligible to expand the services nation-wide. The company has completed taking its services to 273 VDCs of Mid-Western Development Region in the first phase.

In July last year, NST signed a contract with China’s ZTE Corporation for network expansion under the second phase and starting the service by March this year. However, NTA officials said the chances of meeting that target were slim due to spectrum issues.

NTA had issued the licence to NST on Feb 17, 2008, to start CDMA and GSM services from un-served rural VDCs of Mid-western development region.

Swedish-Finish TeliaSonera, which acquired a majority stake in NST last year, has been planning to offer better service at lower cost in rural areas. The company bought 49 percent stake in Cyprus’ Airbell Services, which owned 75 percent stake in NST.

Meanwhile, a Cabinet meeting on Friday decided to give the power to the senior most NTA board member to hold board meetings and take necessary decisions. As per the decision, Girindra Raj Adhikari will henceforth chair NTA board meetings for taking policy decisions related to licence issuance and renewal, approval of tariff plans proposed telecom companies and implementation of NTA’s annual programmes, among others.

The government’s decision is based on Clause 60 of the Telecommunication Act, which allows the Communications Ministry to remove any hurdles in the implementation of the Act, which also governs NTA chairman.

All NTA affairs needing the NTA board’s decision has remained undecided due to the absence of chairman. About two months ago, the Supreme Court issued a stay order against the appointment of Digambar Jha as new chairman.

Source: The Kathmandu Post