Radio Frequency Policy Determination Committee has decided to provide 5MHz additional frequency bandwidth in 1800 MHz band to Nepal Telecom. Earlier, the telecom operator had been lobbying for the same spectrum.
The committee under the Ministry of Communication and Information technology (MoCIT) is also headed by the Minister himself. Whereas other members are the secretary from the Home Ministry, Defense Ministry, Tourism Ministry, and MoCIT.
Nepal Telecom currently holds 15 MHz bandwidth in the 1800 MHz. After the addition of 5 MHz, the total frequency bandwidth becomes 20 MHz, which is the upper ceiling for any operator to hold in that spectrum band as per frequency policy. Similarly, Ncell already holds the 20 MHz that they could get from spectrum auction.
Earlier there was a 16 MHz residual spectrum in 1800 Mhz band, among which Ncell got contiguous 9 MHz bandwidth from the auction. NTA also performed the spectrum refarming in the 1800Mhz band to make the continuous spectrum possible. Ncell’s bid price of 1 MHz was Rs 5 crore and 80 lakhs, which was now the price of the frequency in this band for Ncell. While awarding the frequency, NTA put several conditions to Ncell for 4G expansion.
As per the decision, Nepal Telecom also has to pay the same 5 crores and 80 lakhs per MHz frequency, if the company want to get that chunk of the frequency band. Whereas the company was lobbying to get the spectrum at their own bidding price. But Nepal Telecommunication Authority recommended the price of the frequency in this band to be the same as that of Ncell’s highest bid price.
Source: https://www.nepalitelecom.com/nepal-telecom-additional-5-mhz-in-1800-mhz-spectrum-band