Writ filed in SC against unified telecom licence
KATHMANDU, DEC 16 -
As the government prepares to issue unified licence to small telecom companies, a writ was filed in the Supreme Court on Friday demanding annulment of the unified licence provision introduced about seven months ago.
The Nepal Telecommun-ications Authority (NTA) Chairman Digambar Jha, immediately after his appointment, intensified preparations to issue unified licence to potential companies—United Telecom Limited (UTL) and Smart Telecom.
Advocates—Uttam Shrestha, Laxman Thapaliya and Prabin Shahi—filed the writ, stating that the government’s decision to issue the licence without competition was against the Telecomm-unication Act 1997.
The Cabinet, Ministry of Information and Communica-tions, NTA and five telecom companies—Nepal Telecom, Ncell, UTL, Smart Telecom and Nepal Satellite Telecom—have been named defendants in the writ.
The unified licence provision, introduced in the name of ‘basic telecom service’, enables operators to provide multiple telecom services—local telephone, domestic trunk telephone, international long distance and lucrative cellular mobile telephone—after paying a licence fee of Rs 357.5 million.
Similarly, companies acquiring such licence will have to pay Rs 20.13 billion as licence renewal fee within 10 years. Also, companies acquiring the licence are also eligible to take part in the 3G spectrum auction in future.
The unified licence policy was adopted with a target to offer level playing field to small operators—UTL, Smart Telecom, Nepal Satellite Telecom and STM Telecom.
NTA Director Purushottam Khanal said since they have not received any direction to halt work on unified licence, the preparations would continue.
According to NTA officials, UTL and Smart Telecom have applied for unified licence, while STM Telecom too is interested in obtaining the licence.
NTA Chairman Jha has kept unified licence provision on his priority list. A source at the Communications Ministry said Jha intensified work on the new licensing provision with a target to issue a unified licence to Smart Telecom at the earliest. “Smart has long been pressuring the government to give it first,” the source said.
Last week, a writ was filed against the government’s decision to appoint Jha as NTA chairman. Based on the writ filed by Bishwa Nath Goyal, one of the competitors for the NTA chairman post, the Supreme Court had summoned both the defendants and the petitioner for a presentation scheduled for Sunday. Goyal has accused the government of appointing Jha as NTA chairman against the Telecom Act.
Source: The Kathmandu Post
