Open up the telecom sector, but with caution

There is a case to be made for the entry of new players in the telecom sector.

The subscribers of the country’s two mobile service providers can hardly be said to be happy with what they are getting. If the litany list of complaints against the government-majority owned Nepal Telecom as well as Ncell, a public limited company, are anything to go by, both offer patchy services and at a rather stiff price. Perhaps this wouldn’t be so if there were more actors in play, whereby service providers would be forced to compete over service quality and price. The new Balendra Shah government seems to think so. Minister for Communication and Information Technology Bikram Timilsina has repeatedly spoken of the need for “one or even more” additional telecom operators. To study the matter, the Nepal Telecommunications Authority, the sector’s regulator, has formed a committee whose recommendations are now awaited. Yet this is an old story. Every time a new government takes office, there are discussions on licenses for new telecom operators. Studies are carried out, potential applicants identified, and elaborate reports prepared—but then nothing happens.