Spectrum issues in Nepal

P. KhanalNepal Telecommunications Authority

pkhanal@nta.gov.npDirector Admin,HR, Finance and Rural telecom

Africa Asia Regulatory conferenceColombo, Sri-Lanka

Dang

Banke

Bard ia

SurkhetKaila li

Kanchanpur

D adeldhura

Baitad i

D oti

Bajhang

Achham

D archula

H um la

Bajura

D ailekh

Kalikot Jum la

M ugu

Jajorkot

SalyanR olpa

R ukum

D olpa

Baglung

M yagdi

M ustang

Pyuthan

Arghakhanchi

G ulm i

Palpa

Syangja

Parbat

Kaski

Tanahu

M anang

KapilbastuR upandehi N aw alparasi

C hitw an

lam jung G orkha

Dhading

R asuw a

N uw akotS indhupalchowk

Kavre

M akaw anpur

La litpur

Parsa

Bara

Rau

taha

t

Sarlahi

Mahotta

ri

D hanusa S iraha

Saptari

U dayapur

SunsariM orang

Jhapa

Illam

Panchthar

Taple jung

S indhuli

R am echhap

D olakhaSolokhum bu

O kha ldhungaKhotang

Bhojpur

Sankhuw asava

D hankuta

Tehrath

um

Ta p le jung

Fid im

Illa m

Te h rat h

u m

Dha nkuta

J ha p a

Dha ra n

Biratn

a g a r

Kha nd b a riSa lle ri

O kha ld ung a

Dite l Bho jp ur

Ina ra wa

G a ig ha t

Ra jb ira j

Sira ha

J a na kp ur

Jale

sow

or

M a la ng a wa

Sind hulim a d hi

Ram

e chh

a p

C ha riko t

Dulikhe l

C ha uta ra

Bid ur

Dha d ing Be siKTM

BHK

PATAN

He ta und a

Bhim p he d i

G a ur

Ka la iya

Birg unj

Bha ra tp ur

G o rkhaDa m a uli

Be nsi Sa ha r

C ha m e

Po kha ra

Sya ng ja

Pa lp a

Pa ra siBha ira ha waTa uliha wa

Sa nd hi Kha rka

Ta m g ha sh

Ba g lung

Be ni

J o m so m

Pyutha nG ho ra h i

Tulsip ur

Liwa ng

Sa lya n

J um likha la ng

Duna i

J um la

J a ja rko t

Bire nd ra Na g a r

N e p a lg unj

G ula riya

Da ile kh

M a nm a

G a ng a d hi

Sim iko t

M a rta d i

M a ng a lse nSilg a d hi

Dha ng a d hi

C ha inp ur

Da rc hula

Ba ita d i

Da d e ld hura

M a he nd ra N a g a r

D ip a ya l

Kush

ma

Dhunc he

Buta wa l

3

China

India

India

India

Location: 260 22' to 300 27' N Latitude

800 4' to 880 12' E Longitude

Area: 147,181 Sq Kilometer

Length: 885 Kms east to west

Breadth: 145 to 241 Kms north to south

Population: About 26.6 Millions

NEPAL

Geographical Divisions:The Himalayan Region–Altitude ranges from 5000m to 8848m –Composed of Himalayas and snowy mountains–Covers 15% of total area

The Hilly Region–Altitude ranges from 300m to 5000m –Consists of hills, green woods and fertile valleys –Covers 68% of Total Area

The Terai (Plain) Region–Altitude ranges from 300m or less –Rich in agricultural production –Covers 17% of total area

Administrative Divisions:–5 Development Regions–14 Zones–75 Districts–58 Municipalities & 3914 Village Dev. Committees

Base camp of Mount Everest Namchebazar

MOIC

Telecom ACTTelecom Regulation

Telecom Policy

NTA

Telecom Sector

Telecommunications Sector at a glance

Major Telecommunications services in Nepal

Nepal Telecom

Ncell Pvt. Ltd.

United Telecom Ltd..

STM Telecom

Nepal Satellite

Smart Tel Pvt. Ltd

Fixed, Cellular Mobile based on GSM and CDMA, services throughout the country.

Cellular Mobile Service based on GSM technology.

Basic service WiLL, using CDMA technology.

STM is providing VSAT based PCO in EDR.

Nepal Satellite has started its service in the MWDR

Smart Tel has started its services in the remote VDCs of the all development regions other than the EDR.

Service

Tele-Density • Services Penetration Rate • Fixed 3.17%• Mobile 50.16% • Others (LM, GMPCS) 3.13%

• Total 56.46%

Note: Projected Population for 2011 is 26,620,809 (Source : cbs.gov.np) Source: MIS NTA

9The overall telecom Scenario and telecom penetrationOperators Available Voice Telephony

Services Fixed Mobile Others Total

PSTN

WLL GSM CDMA LMS GMPCS

NDCL 612,720

153,469

5,646,682

856,234

- - 7,269,105

UTL - 71,072

520,439

591,511

NCELL

6,851,561

6,851,561

STM 5,108 155 5263

NSTPL

2,575 109,330

111,905

Smart 598 202,442

203,040

GMPCS

1,742 1,742

Total 618,426

227,116

12,498,243

856,234

832,366

1742 15,034,127

Legislation, Statistics of allocation and

PAC investigation on Spectrum

GSM 900: 887.6-915 MHz Paired with

932.6-960 MHz

GSM 1800: 1710-1755 MHz paired with 1805-1850 MHz

CDMA 800: 824-841.25 MHz Paired with 869-886.25 MHz

CDMA 1900: 1850-1880 MHz paired with 1930 1960 MHz

IMT 2000(3G): 1960-1980 MHz paired with 2150-2170 MHz

Apex entityRadio Frequency Policy Determination Committee (RFPDC)

The committee is chaired by Minister of information and Communications

and the member s of committee are as follows: -

(a)Minister or Minister of State,I nformation and Communications – Chairman

(b) Secretary, Ministry of Home – Member

(c) Secretary, Ministry of Defense – Member

(d) Secretary, Ministry of Tourism and Civil Aviation – Member

(e) Secretary, Ministry of Information and Communications – Member

(f) Chairman, Nepal Telecommunications Authority – Member

(g) At least Gazetted first class or expert Officer equivalent there to designated by Nepal Government - Member - Secretary

 (a)To determine the policy relating to radio frequency.

(b) To fix and allocate the radio frequency for different services .

(c) To determine the pricing policy of radio frequency.

(d) To determine the policy for international and multi purpose coordination of radio frequency.

(3) Other functions, duties and powers and procedures relating to the meeting of the committee shall be as prescribed.

 

The Committee shall fix and allocate radio frequency for different services, subject to the frequency allocated by the International Telecommunications Union (ITU).

 It shall be the function of the Ministry to make coordination in consonance with the policy on international and multipurpose coordination of radio frequency formulated by the Committee.

NTA’s Responsibility

NTA shall carry out the act of prescribing and distributing the frequency to be used for the telecommunications service subject to the frequency fixed and allocated by the RFPDC.

 The Authority shall prescribe the terms to be observed by the Licensee while using the frequency in operating the telecommunications service.

The Authority shall have the powers to inquire and monitor as to whether the Licensee has used the frequency in consonance with the terms prescribe under telecom rule.

while conducting inquiry or monitoring ,if the Licensee has not used the frequency in consonance with the terms, the Authority shall provide a reasonable period of time as well as an opportunity to the Licensee to use the frequency in accordance with the terms.

If the Licensee fails to use the frequency in consonance with the terms even within the period of time so provided, the Authority may prohibit the frequency used by him.

The License and Radio Spectrum fee including other fees shall be collected only for sufficiently covering the overhead (Operation) cost of the body working thereof.

Payment of Fees : The Licensee shall have to pay the fees while using the frequency prescribed by the Committee in connection with the operation of the telecommunications service.

NTA shall have to deposit the fees received above to Nepal Government.  

Decision of RFPDC for the GSM, CDMA frequency fee in 2002 was as follows:

GSM/CDMA Cellular Mobile System fee

Radio Frequency Fee = C ∑ No. of pair of spot frequency for station n.n =1, 2, 3,……… Where, n is any integer subjected to no. of Fixed station.C is a fixed number in accordance with Appendix 7,6 (b) 4 of the Radio Communications (License) regulation, 2049. This constant C is amendable as per the clause 24 of the above mentioned Regulation by the Ministry of Information and Communications. The value of C is currently fixed at Rs. 6,000.00 (Six Thousand) Rupees.

With consultation with the international experts NTA requested govt. to formulate new frequency pricing policy in 2008

The main features in the recommendations were:

• Proper utilization of the scarce resources.

• The recommendation was to encourage licensee to use spectrum to fulfill their actual needs only.

•Provision to discouraged to hold spectrum . (More Charge )

•To contribute govt . Revenue as well

After above recommendation, meeting of the RFPDC could not arranged for two years i.e. up to 2010 due to various region.

In the absence of the committee ,Minister and MOIC instructed NTA to assign 3G spectrum to the incumbent operator , subject to pay fees from the initial phase of the uses when RFPDC decides on it.

And to provide equal level playing field ,NTA it self assigned 3G frequency under above condition to the private telecom operators as well.

S.N CDMA

800GSM 900 GSM 1800 CDMA 1900 IMT 2000 Total

Allocated Band operator

16 27.4 45 30 20 141

NDCL 8 7.2+2.4* 9+6* 10 42.6

SNPL 6+2* 9+2* 10 29

UTL 3.75 1.25 5

NSTPL 4.4 9 18.4

STM 2.4 2.4

SMART 3

3 Guardband

Total Grand 11.75 27.4 38 1.25 20 103.4

Free Band 3.25 0.0 7 28.75 0 37.6

With close consultation with the experts and stakeholder NTA again requested govt. to formulate new frequency pricing policy again in 2010. and then RFPDC approved new pricing policy in 2011 (except 3G )

Spectrum Assignment Criteria for GSM and CDMA Annex-1

A.Bandwidth for Initial AssignmentTechnology

BW for Service in rural areas (MHz)

BW for Service including Urban areas (MHz)

GSM 2x2.4* 2x4.4

CDMA 2x2.5 2x2.5

Bandwidth (MHz) 2x2.4* 2x4.4 2x6 2x7.2 2x8 2x9

Subscriber Base ('000) 80 500 900 1,200 1,400 1,800

Revenue Base Rs ('000) 288,000 1,800,000 3,240,000 4,320,000 5,040,000 6,480,000

Bandwidth (MHz) 2x9.6 2x11 2x12 2x15

for BW>15 MHz

Subscriber Base ('000) 2000 2500 3000 4,500

200/MHz or

400/Paired MHz)

Revenue Base Rs ('000) 7,200,000 9,000,000 10,800,000 16,200,000

 3.6 x number

of subscribers

Bandwidth (MHz) 2x2.5 2x3.75 2x5 2x6.25

Carriers (2 Carriers) (3 carriers) (4 Carriers) (5 Carriers)

Subscriber Base ('000) 500 800 2,500 5,000

Revenue Base Rs ('000) 1,800,000 2,880,000 4,320,000 6,120,000

Formula-1 annex-2

(2BWL + BWU)Annual Spectrum Fee (Rs.) = [P] X [AGR] X BWT

Where P: Percent figure. The value is currently fixed 0.7%. Radio

Frequency Policy Determination Committee may review the value of P as and when deemed necessary.

AGR: Annual Gross Revenue

BWL: Total Spectral Bandwidth assigned to the licensee in Lower Frequencies (e.g. CDMA800 and GSM/EGMS900)

BWU: Total Bandwidth assigned to the licensee in Higher Frequencies (e.g. CDMA1900 and GSM1800)

BWT: Total Bandwidth Assigned to the licensee = BWL +BWU

Formula-2

(2BWL + BWU)Annual Spectrum Fee (Rs.) = [P] X [AGR] X + R X (BWT - BWE) X αBWT

 Where P: Percent figure. The value is currently fixed 0.7%. Radio Frequency Policy

Determination Committee may review the value of P as and when deemed necessary.

AGR: Annual Gross Revenue

BWE: Bandwidth Essential for the service, determined based on the Spectrum Assignment Criteria for GSM & CDMA (Annex-1, )

Total Bandwidth is the sum of all the 2G / 2.5 G (GSM and CDMA) Bandwidth.

BWL: Total Spectral Bandwidth assigned to the licensee in Lower Frequencies (e.g. CDMA800 and GSM/EGMS900)

BWU: Total Bandwidth assigned to the licensee in Higher Frequencies (e.g. CDMA1900 and GSM1800)

BWT: Total Bandwidth Assigned to the licensee = BWL +BWU

R: Annual Rate of Spectrum Charge (Rs/MHz) for Extra Bandwidth, Currently the value of R is fixed at Rs. 7,000,000/MHz and shall increase by Rs. 25 millions

every two years.

α Regional Coefficient: α = 1 as clarified overleaf in ponit 3 in page 2 of this Annex.

Main feature of the pricing policy

Fee for GSM and CDMA Spectrum

Fee for GSM 900 and 3G

Holding spectrum more than requirement

On the basis of (bandwidth + Certain percentage of

Revenue)

Double and triple than GSM 1800 respectively

Pay more fees as per formula no.2.

PAC has Investigated the entire spectrum allocation processes and gave its report for the immediate implementation.

Issues raise by PAC Instruction of PAC

Spectrum is scarce resources of country

spectrum were provided by adhock decision

Operators are holding more than necessary

spectrum

Country is loosing money

Prepare transparent and scientific policy on it instead of

previous one.

Detail investigation should be carried out by proper authority

Withdraw the more spectrum

Make necessary arrangements for auction