• Govt piled pressure on ISPs not to raise internet fees as international bandwidth price had come down

Kathmandu, July 26 Under pressure from the government, internet service providers have agreed to revoke their earlier decision to hike internet fees. In line with the government’s decision to impose 13 per cent telecommunication service charge on internet services from this fiscal, ISPs had raised internet fees by almost 14 per cent from mid-July. However, the government had pressured ISPs not to raise internet fees in the backdrop of international bandwidth price plummeting significantly in the past few years. In fact, global bandwidth price that used to cost almost $50 per Mbps per month some four years back has dropped to almost $10 per Mbps per month at present, as per Nepal Telecommunications Authority. Subsequently, the government had formed a committee last week, comprising representatives from ISPs, to discuss effective internet pricing mechanism and if it was necessary to raise internet fees. Submitting its report to the Ministry of Information and Communications today, the committee stated that the hike in internet fees was not necessary. “ISPs today signed an agreement not to raise internet fees,” Ram Chandra Dhakal, spokesperson for MoIC, told THT. He added that as the majority of ISPs were yet to issue bills of the ongoing month, the earlier decision of ISPs would have less impact on internet subscribers in terms of cost. Meanwhile, ISPs have said that though subscribers will not be compensated for the additional internet fees they paid for the last 10 days, ISPs will charge previous internet rates from Friday onwards. Meanwhile, Sudheer Parajuli, former president of Internet Service Providers’ Association, said ISPs had revoked their previous decision to raise internet fees only because the government had pledged to revise other taxes being levied on the internet industry.