Nepal VOIP to get legalised?

They say one man’s meat is often another man’s poison, and for us VoIP lovers – especially the Nepali VoIP lovers – this couldn’t be truer. What came as a rude shock to the Nepalese Government is a celebration cause for all advocates of VoIP. After an estimate revealed that the Government is losing NRS 8 billion annually due to illegal International Long Distance call bypass services offered by VoIP powered public phone booths and cyber cafes, the Nepal Telecom Authority has finally given the green signal to United Telecom Limited and Nepal Telecom to employ VoIP technology. And when you come to think of it, who can blame them? If I was losing that kind of money, I’d want it back too!

United Telecom Limited is a Bangalore based joint venture between India’s MTNL, VSNL and Telecommunications Consultants India. In Nepal, it operates in collaboration with Nepal Venture Private Limited, and is also the country’s first private telecom operator. Nepal Telecom – the other company that has been given the go-ahead – is a state owned enterprise. The VoIP project is still in its initial phases, with UTL only beginning to conduct feasibility studies to identify partners it can ally with overseas to offer the new technology to its subscribers in Nepal. If initial estimates are to be believed, UTL will need to invest about NRS 150 Million (Over $2 Million) to implement the new technology.

I like the fact that the government has granted licenses to two companies to negate the possibility of a monopoly. But even though everything seems bright and ‍positive so far, I won’t be surprised if hitches crop up in the plan concerning the rights and licenses of the two telecom operators. Discrimination against the privately owned UTL is not unheard of in Nepal, and petty politics could spoil the whole thing. An example of the prejudice would be that even though both UTL and Nepal Telecom have identical licenses to offer phone service based on the wave technology employed by cellular phones, the Nepal Telecom Authority has allowed Nepal Telecom to offer full mobility to their customers, while UTL has been restricted to limited mobility.

This means that while a UTL subscriber can use his phone as a mobile only up to a certain area, Nepal Telecom’s phones using the same technology can be used anywhere in the country. If such discrimination seeps into the new VoIP plan, it can be a heavy setback to the development of a strong, robust VoIP network in Nepal.

This post is written by Samarth Chandola. Samarth is full time VOIP News Editor for VOIP Guide.