The opening of VoIP service is part of the pre-condition of an agreement with Asian Development Bank (ADB) on an ICT development project. As per the agreement, the government has to gradually open VoIP. [break]
ADB had granted $6 million for the Voice over Broadband Service (VoBS) project under the ICT development project worth $25 million.
VoIP service provider will be assigned new range of numbers, which individuals can use to make cheaper calls abroad and person residing abroad can make similar cheaper calls to Nepal.
Although the Cabinet had already approved the proposal a year ago, MoIC had suspended the process stating that it required to do more study before introducing the service. “We have completed a year-long study and have decided that there are no problems to launch the service,” an official at MoIC said.
Launching of the service landed into uncertainties following the frequency issues as it requires a new band for the operation of the service. MoIC had assigned frequency band of 2.3 Mhz for the service. “We have forwarded the proposal keeping the frequency issue aside as it is important to issue the license for the service at first,” the official said.
The official said that only those companies which are operating broadband service to at least 25 districts including 1,300 VDCs will be awarded with the license. At present, operators can use Internet to make calls abroad but receiving similar calls from abroad is illegal.
The introduction of the service will hit the revenue of telecom operators as a large chunk of their revenue comes from the use of International Long Distance (ILD) gateway. “Trade unions of Nepal Telecom (NT) and private operators are lobbying so that VoIP service is not opened,” the official added.
Five telecom operators including state-owned NT, Ncell, UTL, Smart Telecom and Nepal Satellite Telecom have license to operate ILD gateway.
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