The competition among telecom operators began after United Telecom Limited (UTL) reduced its ISD rates to India to Rs 3 per minute. Other telecom service providers followed the suit and they went on bringing down their ISD rates in selected countries. [break]
An official at Nepal Telecommunication Authortiy (NTA) said telecommunication service providers started slashing their international call rates after UTL significantly brought down its ISD rate to India.
Six months ago, UTL had remarkably reduced its call rates to India, US, China, Japan and South Korea as a part of its promotional scheme for six months. But the company has been continuing the scheme ever after the end of the six-month scheme. To avail the promotional rates, UTL subscribers are required to dial 1220 access code.
State-run Nepal Telecom (NT), however, has objected to the continuation of UTL´s promotional scheme.
“NTA´s is unnecessarily lingering the issue. Though consumers are enjoying lower call rates, NTA Board is yet to approve it,” an NTA official told myrepublica.com.
NTA Spokesperson Kailash Prasad Neupane said the agenda of ISD tariff was not included in NTA Board meeting that convened on Tuesday. “NTA has not approved UTL´s international call tariff because NTA feels it is affecting other telecom operators,” Neupane added.
NTA had hired a consultant a few months back to study the ongoing ISD tariff debate among telecom operators. The report had found UTL´s ISD tariff to India justifiable.
Ncell, the first private mobile service provider in the country, has also reduced international call tariff following UTL´s initiative. Ncell subscribers can avail the new rates by just dialing country code and local codes.
“Unlike other telecom operators, our subscribers needn´t dial special access code to make international calls,” Sanju Koirala, corporate communication officer at Ncell, informed myrepublica.com.
Ncell has fixed ISD rates to 10 countries, including US and Canada, at just Rs 6 per minute. The charge is just Rs 7.46 per minutes after adding 10 percent telecommunication service charge and 13 percent Value Added Tax.
Ncell has also reduced its SMS charge to Rs 5 (exclusive of taxes) to India, USA, Canada, China, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, South Korea and Thailand.
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