Responding to a consultation paper floated by NTA, major players Nepal Telecom (NT) and Ncell said the telecom regulator should not slash down the IUC to Rs 0.72 per minute as it would hamper their revenue which will eventually reduce the revenue going to the state coffer. [break]Instead, they have suggested the NTA to take strict against illegal operators and streamline monitoring activities in order to address the issue.
At present telecom operators are charging Rs 4.5-Rs 6 per minute while transferring international calls depending on the country.
On the other hand, NTA has claimed that reduction in IUC will make international calls to Nepal cheaper and that it will help minimize the number of illegal VoIPs. NTA has formed a committee to recommend tariff structure for international call termination. It had sought opinions from the operators about a month ago.
NTA had proposed to reduce the rate to Rs 1.80 per minute in 2007. But the operators had cold-shouldered it, saying that tariff of incoming international calls won´t impact general people much and that it will hit revenue generation. The regulator, however, is determined to reduce the IUC this time after operators showed reluctance to reduce tariff in line with the international market.
“Once the IUC is slashed, the tariff of international incoming calls will go down which will lead to drop in the number of illegal VoIPs. Also, call success rate will improve,” argued Kailash Prasad Neupane, spokesperson of NTA. “It won´t impact revenue of telecom operators as number of calls will increase once incoming international call tariff is reduced.”
Madan Singh, general manager of United Telecom Limited (UTL), echoed Neupane and said incoming international calls will come through legal channels once IUC is slashed. “This will benefit both operators and the customers as number of calls through illegal VoIPs will go down and incoming international calls will be cheaper. Also service quality will improve,” he added.
Nepal presently receives 240 million minutes of international calls worth about Rs 23 billion a month. Operator fear they will lose a significant chunk of it if the IUC is slashed.
“Big operators will be at the receiving end if the IUC is reduced because it is a major source of revenue for them,” Surendra Prasad Thike, spokesperson of NT said. Operators might have to increase local tariff to make up for the loss in revenue if US is slashed, he added.
Sanju Koirala, corporate communication manager of Ncell, was skeptic on the proposed change lowering incoming international call rates, as international operators won´t have any legal obligation to reduce call tariff. “The proposed change will cause massive revenue loss for us which can´t be compensated by rise in the number of incoming international calls that might go up 2 to 3 fold at maximum,” added Koirala.
Officials of NT and Ncell argued that reduction in IUC was not the right approach to discourage illegal VoIPS whose number has done down in recent times due to joint efforts of operators and security agencies.
Related story
Social influencers unite to speak against lowering legal marria...
