State-owned Nepal Telecom (NT) is looking to create a new company focused on telecoms infrastructure, according to its recently-appointed managing director.
Anup Ranjan Bhattarai told local newspaper Republica that NT will have 50% of the proposed…
State-owned Nepal Telecom (NT) is looking to create a new company focused on telecoms infrastructure, according to its recently-appointed managing director.
Anup Ranjan Bhattarai told local newspaper Republica that NT will have 50% of the proposed company while strategic partners, in particular foreign ones, will be invited to buy the remaining shares.
The aim is to facilitate infrastructure sharing between telcos, and therefore cut their capex, and to roll out optical fibre networks across the country.
Nepal Telecom is in the process of building 4,000 new base transceiver stations at a cost of NPR20bn (US$207m), he said.
The operator has set up a task force to work on the new company, which could be established before the end of the year.
Separately the country’s communications minister, Minendra Rijal, was recently quoted saying that the government is still planning to sell a 30% stake in NT.
The privatisation plan has been in the pipeline since 2010 but has reportedly been delayed by regulatory and administrative hurdles.
NT, which is 91.5% state-owned, has a monopoly on fixed-line services in Nepal while it is second in the country’s wireless duopoly, behind TeliaSonera-held Ncell.
