NTA to fund satellite feasibility study
KATHMANDU: If things go as per plan, the government will soon call a tender to hire a consultant that will conduct a feasibility study to launch Nepal’s own satellite. The Ministry of Information and Communications (MoIC) and Nepal Telecommunications Authority (NTA) are working jointly regarding the study plan.
Despite having International Telecommunication Union (ITU) allocated orbital slots since 1984, the government has failed to utilise it. ITU is the highest body that allocates orbital slots for satellite position. Nepal has been assigned 50 degree east and 123.3 degree east orbital slots, according to NTA. Orbital slots refer to the location where satellites can be placed.
NTA officials said that ITU is urging Nepal to claim its space by the end of 2015. The government in the last fiscal year’s budget had also announced of carrying out a feasibility study in this regard. However, MoIC in the current fiscal year received only Rs 200,000 for the purpose of the study.
Anup Nepal, chief of the Frequency Management Section of MoIC, said that the limited resource will be used for preparation of terms of reference for the consultant to be hired. “For the feasibility study, MoIC and NTA will work jointly,” said Nepal.
As per the plan, NTA will support the government to carry out the study by utilising the resource of the Rural Telecommunications Development Fund. It is estimated that it will cost around Rs 100 million to complete the feasibility study.
MoIC and NTA have already held two rounds of talks to put combined efforts for the study. NTA officials said that the government is open for any modalities, including leasing the slots to any interested party, launching own satellite under public-private partnership, or shifting of satellite in the assigned slots.
The study will determine how feasible it will be for Nepal to launch its own satellite, investment modality, types of capacity and coverage for telecommunications and broadcasting sector and commercial viability, among others.
Earlier, European, American and Chinese companies had also shown interest to invest in Nepali satellite and had also approached former communications ministers Madhav Paudel and Raj Kishor Yadav.
“The parties were ready for any investment model but nothing concrete came out of it as the plan was in preliminary phase,” said a government source.
The satellite plan had once also been forwarded to the Investment Board Nepal, but it refused to undertake the project citing the nature of the project was related to resource utilisation and in immature phase.
Though a huge investment, launching a satellite can contribute in bringing massive progress in the communications sector of the country as an alternative to cable connection and take services to rural areas. Digambar Jha, chairman of NTA, said the government will explore public-private partnership model. “MoIC, National Planning Commission and NTA will coordinate for the plan,” he added.
Due to lack of Nepal’s own satellite, Nepali companies are spending huge amounts of money each year for satellite service for telecommunications and broadcasting purposes. However, the task of launching a satellite will not be easy in terms of investment, possible objection and interference from other countries.
Bangladesh, which started a project to launch its first satellite ‘Bangabandhu’ in 2008, is still struggling to send the satellite due to controversy regarding orbital slots. Earlier, it had planned to place the satellite at 102 degree east and after objection from as many as 20 countries, it is looking for alternative slots.
Source: THT
