Even though the plan was drafted back in 2012, the telecommunications sector regulator had been failing to finalize it."We have realized the importance of integrated NETP after the earthquake," Achyutananda Mishra, spokesperson of NTA, said. "We will finalize it within two to three weeks."
NTA has invited Tamer Demir, an expert from International Telecommunication Union (ITU), to conduct a study on status of telecommunications in Nepal after the earthquake and to provide operational inputs in NETP.
"We will finalize the draft after incorporating inputs from the experts and get it approved by the NTA board. Then we will forward the plan to the Ministry of Information and Communications (MoIC)," said Mishra.
The study report of the plan has explored areas such as identification of possible disasters in Nepal, and highlighted the role and responsibilities of different stakeholders and need of cooperative mechanism among related stakeholders to maintain and avail telecommunications service in the aftermath of the disasters.
The draft of the plan has suggested developing an appropriate system with suitable techniques and standard operating procedures applicable to emergency network, equipment and frequency plan for overall emergency telecommunication management. The plan has also suggested identifying key strategic areas to build robust network for back-up in case of disasters.
As telecommunications service can be used as a tool for disseminating information about impending disasters, the draft plan also highlights the need to adopt early warning system by telecom operators.
"There was no massive breakdown in telecommunications network in the earthquake this time. But we have to learn from this and immediately make a plan, keeping in mind that most of the public networks will go down during the time of such disasters," Ananda Raj Khanal, director of NTA, said.
Khanal also said emergency telecommunications plan is a must to ensure minimum public communication and to ensure that agencies and people involved in rescue and relief work get in touch with each others in the aftermath of the disaster.
As telecommunications play a critical role in facilitating response and relief works, the reconstruction and recovery process and coordinating the effort of getting returnees displaced by disasters back to their original settlements, concerned stakeholders have been focusing on the urgent need of emergency plan and have been requesting NTA to bring the plan into action as soon as possible, according to NTA officials.
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