NTA to revise national numbering plan

SHIROMANI DHUNGANA

KATHMANDU: Nepal Telecommunications Authority (NTA) is likely to enact the provision of charging tariff to the telecom service providers in its new national numbering plan.

Numbering is a critical resource for telecommunication regulators, said deputy director at the authority Min Prasad Aryal, adding that numbering scheme is one of the revenue collection source along with frequency allocation and right of the way.

The government can collect enormous revenue by charging the service providers for using particular number, he informed. “The authority has formed a committee to study the existing numbering plan and recommend the appropriate ways for the betterment of the current system.”

The committee will study introduction of scientific national numbering plan keeping the long term growth of telecom sector in mind, he added.

A telephone-numbering plan is a type of numbering scheme used in telecommunications to allocate telephone numbers to subscribers and to route telephone calls in a telephone network.

The committee will revisit the existing numbering plan scheme based on some universal guidance, he said. “Estimating the available numbering capacity, estimating the required numbering capacity, determining number lengths and planning geographic numbers are some guideline for the numbering planning.”

Number management along with spectrum management and rights of way management, should be performed in the overall national interest, he said, adding that the authority will revise the numbering plan in a way that it can cope the rapid changes in the telecom sector.

The review of national numbering plan, which the regulator is currently undertaking, is intended to help the design, implementation and management of telephony numbering plans.

Teledensity 62.56 per cent

KATHMANDU: The overall teledensity of the country has reached to 62.56 per cent until mid-May upped from 61.42 a month ago, according to the Management Information Service (MIS) report of Nepal Telecommunications Authority. The 16.35 million out of 26.62 million population have access to the telephone services according to the new report. Of the total users, state-owned telecom giant Nepal Telecom has 7.8 million subscribers base whereas private key player Ncell has 7.6 million, the MIS report said. The subscriber base of UTL, Nepal Satellite and Smart has reached to 0.62 million, 0.14 million and 0.31 million, respectively. The subscriber base of STM is extremely low 5,344, according to the new MIS report.