At present, the NTA has designated these operators as rural telecom operators.[break]
NTA had formed a committee comprising of independent consultants to find out if the telecom operators had fulfilled the required conditions for getting the permission for ILD gateway facility. “The report clearly states that these operators haven´t fulfilled the required pre-condition for ILD gateway,” said an NTA source.
As per the condition, NST is required to provide services to 273 VDCs in the Mid-western Development Region. It is also mandatory for NST to reach out to more than 50 percent area of mid-western region to provide service as per the local demand.
Similarly, STPL is required to provide service in 398 VDCs of different regions excluding Eastern Development Region. “Smart Telecom is yet to cover 28 VDCs,” the source said.
However, NTA chairperson Bhesh Raj Kandel denied the accusations that a decision has been made to provide those companies with ILD gateway permission violating the existing provisions.
He said that the decision was taken after studying the report of the committee. He argued that NST would have been granted the license a year ago had NTA bowed down to the pressure from the operator.
He further said that NST and STPL could start using ILD gateway service after making the payment of Rs 65 million as a license fee.
About a year ago, following pressure from some top leaders, NTA had forwarded the procedure to allow NST to import equipment required to operate ILD service.
The operator had failed to meet the pre-conditions laid by NTA to get the permission for importing necessary equipment for ILD service. The NTA´s move to issue licenses to the operators without fulfilling conditions shows that the telecom authority has been under immense pressure to legitimize the flawed decision.
NTA source said both NST and STPL were also planning to acquire permission to operate GSM telecom service inviting foreign investments after upgrading to ILD service.
After the permission for international gateway, subscribers of NST and STPL can make and receive international calls. International calls are considered as profitable sector in terms of revenue generation compared to other services.
“There is good opportunity to bring in foreign investments in GSM service and the process of acquiring license for it is not going to be tedious as long as they follow proper process,” the source added.
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