Policy, legal, regulatory and operational framework of telecommunications/ICT sector in

Nepal

Background
Development of Information and Communication Technology makes the world as a global village.
To achieve the sustainable development goals of this era, Information and Communication
Technology (ICT) plays the vital role. Government of Nepal has outlined the vision of “Prosperous
Nepal, Happy Nepali” where many indicators of this objective are interlinked with ICT. These
priorities are centered on development and targeted towards to achieve the status of developing
nation by 2022. Nepal has enjoyed incredible success in digital adoption as compared to its
neighbors with mobile penetration of more than 135% and internet penetration reaching 53%. To
achieve this goal; nation needs a policy, laws, rules and regulation in the field of ICT which
ultimately enables the employment by enhancing the foreign development investment. This policy
also helps to strength the ‘Digital Nepal’ framework by developing in the following sectors.

Agriculture
Health
Energy

Education
ICT Tourism

Urban

Infrastructure Financial

Services
Connectivity

ICT Policy 2015

 Development of in the sector of communication and information technology with the
means of ICT
 Expansion of ICT in the rural areas with the rural development fund
 ICT for Youth , Women and Children
  ICT in the field of education, innovation and development via e-school, e-learning, e-
education
 ICT for the industrial area with small and medium Enterprises, Nepal Trade Integration
Strategy 2010, IT/ITES-BPO, e-commerce, Virtual market place
 ICT in the field of Agriculture, Tourism and Health
 ICT for the good governance
 Development of Cloud Computing and Government Integrated Data center

National Broadband Policy 2014

Implementation of ICT enables the development of nation in various sectors. Government has
formulated the national broadband policy 2014 for the sustainable, healthy growth of broadband
sectors. Broadband policy 2014 has several indicators including digital divide and upgrading the
status of nation as developing country by 2022. The main agenda of policy is to develop, expand
and promotion of broadband infrastructure and service for the sustainable, inclusive development
of people and nation.
 Expansion of Broadband internet throughout the country.
 Expansion of optical fiber throughout all districts in country.
 Expansion of wired or wireless broadband to all VDC
 To establish the community e-centers by 2020
 To facilitate the broadband service to all government hospital and health post by 2020
 To facilitate the broadband service to all government offices in district to disseminate the
information and forms related to public via website
 Increasing the huge use of broadband service in the health, agriculture, education sector
for the development of nation by contributing economic activities.
 Enhancing the Telecommunication Regulatory framework in international standard
 Interconnection and interrelation between all the ministries to formulate the e-governance,
tele-education-Health
 Implementation of Internet protocol version 6 (IPV6) Migration Roadmap
 Management and maximum utilization of Radio frequency spectrum
 Ensure the quality of service, tariff and other services as international standard

Spectrum Policy 2012

Spectrum policy 2012 has made proper utilization of radio frequency spectrum for the
telecommunication sector, regulation of spectrum, monitoring of spectrum and generates the
revenue. This spectrum policy determines the new and competitive price of spectrum in basic
telephone, 3G/ 4G and ensures the development of new technology in country. The regulatory
bodies are Ministry of communication, information and technology, Nepal Telecommunication
Authority. Some major indicators define in spectrum policy 2012 are as follows:
  For the new service or technology in new spectrum band, the price is determined by the
auction
 For maximum utilization of frequency band, the established national, regional,
international practices will be followed keeping technology neutral.
 For the time being, Spectrum trading will not be used due to economy of the country is not
fully established
 Spectrum reframing will be used for best practice of radio spectrum

Division of radio frequency band

SN Frequency Band Bandwidth Technology
1 800 MHz 824-841.25 MHz paired with 869-886.25 MHz (2xl CDMA
7.25 MHz)
2 900 MHz 887.6-915 MHz paired with 932.6- 960 MHz GSM
(2x27.4 MHz)
3 1800 MHz 1710-1755 MHz paired with 1805- 1850 MHz (2x45 GSM
MHz)

4 2100 MHz 1960-1980 MHz paired with 2 150- 2170 MHz IMT-2000
(2x20 MHz)

5 2300 MHz 2300 MHz - 2400 MHz (100 MHz ) IMT Advanced
6 2600 MHz 2500 MHz – 2690 MHz (190 MHz ) IMT Advanced
7 1900 MHz 1850-1880 MHz paired with 1930- 1960 MHz CDMA
(2x30 MHz)

Annual Frequency rate

SN Frequency band Band dependent multiplier for Price per Mega Hertz
frequency fee (NRs. Millions)
1 800/900MHz 1.5 6
2 1800Mhz 1 4
3 800/900MHz 1.5 12
4 1800MHz 1 8

Telecommunication Policy 2003

The main objective of the telecommunication is to provide telecom service to people by
contributing social and economic development with public private partnerships.
 Providing telecom services to the people of rural and urban areas in effective ways.
 Providing corporate telecom services to business industry
 Providing opportunity to the people of urban areas to choose the different service
providers and implementing to the rural areas as well
 Universal Access
  Universal Service obligation
 Participation of private sectors in telecom
 Privatization of Nepal Door Sanchar Sansthan (Nepal Telecom)

Operational Framework
On the basis of ICT policy, there are laws, regulations, guidelines and framework which guide the
ICT and telecommunication market, infrastructure, technology in a transparent way towards the
development of nation.

i) Regulatory Body
There are two major stakeholders for the overall regulation; monitoring and licensing of the
frequency spectrum band i.e. Ministry of Communication and Information Technology ((MoCIT)
and Nepal Telecommunication Authority (NTA). MoCIT works for the licensing, monitoring and
regulation of FM Radio, Television and others frequency band. Similarly, NTA works for the
licensing, monitoring and regulation of telecom and Internet Service Provider (ISP) radio
frequency spectrum. The main objective of these bodies is to study the new technology which is
feasible to the country and generates more revenue by benefiting people. NTA has formulated the
many guidelines for the telecom operators such as interconnection of operators, point of
connection, gateways, infrastructure sharing etc.

ii) Telecom operators, Broadband Service provider

According to the report of Nepal Telecommunication Authority, there are five telecom operators
including two major Operators i.e. Nepal Doorsanchar Company Limited and Ncell Pvt. Ltd. and
96 broadband internet service providers. The below chart depicts about the current broadband
subscribers.

Krishna Prasad Ghimire

Roll No. 12
MScISE
Ro