The government plans to conduct studies on the quality of service of basic telephone, cellular mobile and internet services within the current fiscal year. The move has come amid increasing criticism of the quality of telecom service, particularly cellular service. The government will carry out studies on the quality of mobile service in four major cities and along three highways. The Nepal Telecomm-unications Authority, the regulator of the telecom sector, aims to accomplish the task within the current fiscal year.
It plans to conduct quality surveys in Biratnagar, Kathmandu, Pokhara, Nepalgunj and on the Tatopani-Raxaul, Kathmandu-Pokhara and East-West highways. This is the second time that the government is coming up with such a plan to monitor cellular service and check its quality. Earlier, the authority had conducted a quality survey in the Kathmandu Valley by appointing the Centre for Economic and Development Administration (CEDA) as consultant. However, the final result has not been made public citing the need for further work to simplify the report. CEDA had submitted the final report on Feb. 9, 2010.
“The report is very technical,” said an official of the authority. “We have asked CEDA to simplify it.”
In the current fiscal year, the authority plans to conduct studies on the service operator’s performance, the tariff being charged and tower/infrastructure sharing, among others to expand telecom services in rural areas and make them available at affordable prices.
“The studies will help formulate a long-term strategic plan for making quality telecom service available to customers,” said Kailash Neupane, spokesperson of the authority. He said that the authority aimed to conduct studies on telecom infrastructure development in rural areas, adding new operators to make the service more competitive, new technology and improvement of service and expansion of optical fibre.
Apart from the quality of service of cellular telephony, the government this year will examine the quality of service of basic telephone and internet services too. The authority said that it would monitor and check if the licensees of the basic telecom, mobile and internet service were working as per the pre-conditions set in the licensee and the proposal forwarded by the service providers.
Currently, there are three basic telecom service operators, two mobile service
operators and 46 internet and e-mail service providers in the country.
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