Nepal Telecommunications Authority (NTA), the regulatory body of telecom services, has awarded license to operate satellite cellular mobile phone to two private companies. Growing illegal use of satellite cellular mobile phone precipitated the opening up of the service to the private company. In keeping with the unauthorised use of the service, NTA issued license to Constellation Pvt Ltd and Evco International Pvt Ltd, according to Dipesh Acharya, Chief of Licence Department at NTA.

Constellation Pvt Ltd is an authorised agent of Thuraya Satellite Telecommunications Pvt Ltd United Arab Emirates Satellite System Operator and Evco International is an authorised agent of ACES International Limited Burmuda Satellite System Operator for Nepal.
Both the companies will make use of the satellite system of the respective parent companies to make the service available in Nepal, says a press hand out issued by the NTA. NTA opened the service to the private sector almost a year ago and four companies had applied for operating the service. Constellation will start distributing connections within this week and Evco is set to provide the service after a month.

The beauty of the satellite cellular mobile phone is that calls can be made from any remotest part of the earth and there is low possibility of breakdown and the phone can be used for Internet and email service. According to a proposal submitted to NTA by the companies, they would charge Rs 40 to 127 per call and one of them has stated that it would not charge incoming call while the other has stated that it would charge Rs 20 for an incoming call.
According to Rana, a handset costs about Rs 80,000 and connection charge of Rs 4,000 and monthly rental of Rs 2,000 for post paid service and Rs 8,800 for availing pre-paid service from his company. However, Shrestha said that his company would charge Rs 70,000 for handset and the call charges would be fixed later as it has divided the area of service into four categories and charges would depend on the geography of the nations.
The system can provide roaming facility using the Global System of Mobile Communications (GSM) technology. Rana said that the company has already initiated process for an agreement with Nepal Telecommunications Corporation for roaming. According to Acharya, the licence fee for the service is Rs 1.5 million each and the companies can get their licences renewed by paying renewal fee of Rs 1.4 million for a period of five years.

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