Voice over Broadband Service: Delay in notice publication in Nepal Gazette hits project

Nepal, May 10 -- Delay in publication of the notice regarding the opening of Voice over Broadband Service (VoBS) in the Nepal Gazette has affected the work on taking the broadband service and cheaper voice service to rural areas.

A Cabinet meeting more than three months ago had decided to start the service in the country.

According to a source, officials at the Ministry of Information and Communication are neglecting the new service because of the pressure from Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Home Affairs Krishna Bahadur Mahara, who was the Minister for Information and Communications until last week.

The ministry source said with mounting pressure from telecom operators not to allow VoBS in the country, Mahara has verbally ordered the Nepal Telecommunications Authority (NTA) and ministry officials not to move ahead with the project.

"Major telecom operators are against the project fearing that their income might drop, especially from the international long distance (ILD) gateway," said the source. The source added that a huge portion of the income of Nepali telecom operators comes through the ILD gateway.

The Madhav Kumar Nepal-led government, through a Cabinet meeting on Feb. 1, had approved the telecom sector regulatory body's proposal to open VoBS. This service is targeted at enabling rural people to make national and international calls using internet service at cheaper rates through Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) from any location as well as receive international calls.

The project targets to take the high speed broadband internet service having 256 kbps bandwidth along with VoIP to 38 districts. It plans to entrust the job to the lowest bidder as per the least subsidy model. The contract winning operator later can expand the service in urban areas as well, according to the NTA. If all goes well, the service is expected to be available by 2013.

"It is mandatory to publish a notice in the Nepal Gazette before we call a global tender for this project," said Purushottam Khanal, director at the NTA and coordinator of the VoBS Project Implementation Unit. He added that the authority is all prepared to invite a tender.

The project implementation unit has already forwarded the tender document to the ministry and Asian Development Bank (ADB), which has provided $6 million for the project. The project is being undertaken under ADB's ICT Development Project.

The source also said some members of Nepal Telecom workers' unions have been threatening of halting telecom services and picketing the NTA office if it moves ahead with the VoBS project.

As per the existing provision, receiving calls from abroad via internet in telephone or mobile phone is illegal. Only four operators-Nepal Telecom, Ncell, United Telecom and STM Telecom-are allowed to bring in international calls in the country through their ILD gateway.

When asked about the delay in the publication of notice, Sushil Ghimire, secretary at the ministry, said they are holding consultations to this effect. "We are in the process. However, it is not possible to say how long will it take," he said.

Normally, it takes around one to two weeks for publishing a Cabinet decision in the Nepal Gazette. The authority has already set aside 100 MHz of spectrum from the 2.3 GHz band for the service. A service provider requires at least 30 MHz of spectrum to operate the service. However, the government is yet to fix the spectrum fee and number of operators.

According to NTA, prospective service providers must have reached at least 1,500 Village Development Committees of 19 districts with 256 kbps-bandwidth internet facility to obtain the licence, as per the criteria set for operating VoBS.

Published by HT Syndication with permission from EKantipur.com.

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