E-Kantipur

KATHMANDU, OCT 17 -

The Nepal Telecommunications Authority has stated that it expects to collect more than Rs 1 billion this year from telecom operators under the Rural Telecommunications Development Fund (RTDF). Telecom operators and internet service providers are required to pay 2 percent of their total annual revenue to the fund by mid-January each year.

Currently, the fund, established mainly to develop, expand and operate telecom services in rural areas, contains around Rs 3.20

billion. Contributions to the fund from the operators has been increasing remarkably for the last three years. The authority has attributed expansion and development in the telecom sector for the

swelling kitty.

“We will collect over Rs 1 billion for this fund from the gross annual revenues of the operators during the last fiscal year,” said Purushottam Khanal, director of the authority. He added that the two largest operators — Nepal Telecom and Ncell — would contribute around Rs 550 million and Rs 350 million respectively based on their increased service network and income.

In the fiscal year 2009-10, five telecom operators excluding Smart Telecom paid a total of Rs 729.10 million. Out of this, Nepal Telecom contributed Rs 501.16 million, Ncell Rs 151.15 million, United Telecom Rs 24.47 million, STM Telecom Rs 2.8 million and Nepal Satellite Telecom Rs 0.65 million. As per the condition in the license granted to Smart Telecom, it will not have to contribute for up to the next fiscal year, according to the authority.

Even though the size of the fund has been expanding each year, it has not been used for telecom development in the rural sector as planned. For the last two years, the authority has been working to use the money for development of an optical fibre network across the country. However, work on this front has not moved ahead effectively due to delays by the Ministry of Information and Communications to make a “policy level decision”.

A senior official at the ministry said that the government was not sure whether the fund could be utilised for building the optical fibre network or not. “The optical fibre expansion project has not progressed as planned due to instability in the government and lack of a clear vision and action plan,” the official added.

Earlier, the government had planned to complete the fibre expansion project by 2014 with the resources collected under the fund. Under the lowest subsidy model, the authority is planning to call for proposals for the expansion plan in two phases, first for the eastern part and then for the western part of the country.

The government and the authority were more interested in taking loans from the World Bank to develop rural telecom than utilising the money collected under the fund, according to the official at the ministry. STM Telecom and Smart Telecom were established under World Bank loans four years ago as rural telecom service providers.

NT, Qtel sign accord to set up PoP in Doha

KATHMANDU: Nepal Telecom (NT) and Qatar Telecom (Qtel) have signed an agreement to establish a Multi Service Point of Presence (PoP) in Doha, Qatar. The move is targeted at providing better call connections at a cheaper rate through direct interconnection with telecom operators in the Middle East. PoP is an interface between telecommunication entities and is established in a specific physical location where a long distance carrier could terminate services to provide connections into a local telephone network. The PoP to be established in Doha will help build direct connections with telecom service providers in Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Kuwait where a majority of Nepali migrant workers are based.

NT and Qtel signed the agreement to set up the PoP on Sunday amid a programme in the capital. Newly appointed managing director of NT Amar Nath Singh and Ahmed Yusuf Ibrahim Al Darbesti, CEO of Qtel’s International Service, signed the accord. Singh said that the initiative would help promote the business of both operators besides offering quality call service at a cheaper tariff.  NT is planning to establish PoPs in Hong Kong and the UK too in the current fiscal year. It set up a PoP in Singapore in the last fiscal year. In March, NT and Qtel had also agreed to establish direct inter-connections between the two countries through optical fibre cable connection.

Posted on: 2011-10-17 10:14

Post Your Comment

Please note that all the fields marked * are mandatory.
* Full Name
* Address
* Email Address
* Comment
* Captcha	Get another CAPTCHA code
Note:	Comments containing abusive words or slander shall not be published.