Demand for open staff and promotion in the regulatory body Telecommunication Authority. The Nepal Telecommunication Authority is now accepting applications for two senior director positions.
A public notice has been posted by the Telecommunications Regulatory Authority requesting applications for various positions, including the senior director.
According to the application, all positions will be promoted based on performance, and candidates below one level will be eligible to apply if they meet the requirements.
Two senior directors, two directors, and three deputy directors are among the positions sought.
They also required applications for open positions. The employees will be hired up to the assistant director level, including the deputy director. Two Deputy Directors, six Assistant Directors, and one Assistant Staff were requested in the open and internal competition.
Internal promotion applications must be submitted within 30 days, whereas open side applications must be submitted within 21 days. The application must be filed through the authority’s online application system click Here
Nepal Telecommunications Authority is all set to host World Telecommunication & Information Society Day (WTISD) special program on “Accelerating Digital Transformation of Nepal in challenging times” this Monday, May 17th, 2021 (Jestha 03, 2078), from 11:30 AM onwards (NPT) via Zoom.
World Telecommunication and Information Society Day (WTISD) is an international day celebrated to raise awareness of the possibilities that the use of the Internet and other information and communication technologies (ICT) can bring to societies and economies and of ways to bridge the digital divide. For Nepal Telecommunications Authority (NTA), an autonomous telecommunications regulatory body in Nepal and member of the ITU, WTISD 2021 marks an important day to reflect and continue to push for digital transformation by promoting national strategies on ICT development, smart policies to encourage investments, cooperation, and partnership.
Insync with the theme of the WTISD 2021, NTA plans to celebrate the WTISD 2021 in Nepal with a virtual event the theme “Accelerating Digital Transformation of Nepal in challenging times”, to facilitate knowledge sharing and policy dialogue to highlight the critical role of information and communication technologies (ICTs) for the continued functioning of societies. It attempts to bring the champions and authorities leading the digital transformation of Nepal and engage with them in stepping up the activities that are proven essential in saving lives, sustaining economies, and accelerating the digital transformation in the challenging times of COVID-19 in Nepal and elsewhere.
Santosh Poudel has been appointed as the spokesperson of the Nepal Telecommunications Authority. Chairman Purushottam Khanal has appointed him as the new spokesperson of NTA.
Previously, NTA’s spokesperson was Min Prasad Aryal but now Poudel has been appointed in his place.
Poudel, who was promoted to NTA director just a year and a half ago. He has shown his intention to work for the organization’s growth in a new role. In order to change people’s perceptions of the organization.
He is currently the NTA’s head of the law and permit division. Poudel has been with NTA for the last 21 years.
Prior to this, he was in charge of the permission and rural telecommunications development. He also has been in the monitoring division and in other things too.
NTA (Nepal Telecommunications Authority) made arrangements for the use of certain band frequencies. There will be no need for permission for the use of certain band frequencies for domestic purposes.
The regulatory Nepal Telecommunications Authority has begun plans for the use of certain frequencies that can be used within a restricted area without the permission of the service provider.
NTA spokesperson Min Prasad Aryal told the NTA that it had recommended the Radio Frequency Policy Determination Committee for unlicensed frequencies needed for the growth and expansion of the telecommunications network.
“The NTA recommended that the committee identify the bands that could be used without permission,” he said. After approval by the committee, the approval of the NTA would not be compulsory to use such frequencies.
NTA immediately suggested that the frequency of the 5.1 GHz band be unlicensed. Aryal has advised that this band is particularly useful for improving the quality of WiFi used at home.
This frequency would also help to unblock the communication inside the home. In addition, certain high-level frequencies can also be used to arrange white TV space in rural areas.
Nepal Telecommunications Authority will now regulate Tiktok, Youtube, Facebook, and other content providers. According to the sources, NTA will bring new rules and regulations within two months.
Recently with the growth in the number of tiktok users in Nepal, the consumption of bandwidth had increased drastically. Due to this, there had been a problem due to that. To solve the problem, the Akamai server was used to solve the problem.
Lately though, according to Dilip Agrawal, the head of Worldlink Communications, Google has been going through the same phase. Mr. Agrawal pointed this out in a virtual webinar conducted on the company’s 25th anniversary.
It is no news that the ISPs in Nepal have been facing a similar problem of network bandwidth from the content providers.
So, to address this issue government agencies are going to regulate certain rules. The Nepal Telecommunications Authority is preparing to regulate the content providers. They will do so within the next 2 months according to the sources. They have already sent letters to the service providers regarding the subject matter on Bhadra 30.
The letter from Nepal Telecommunications Authority mentions the following main points:
The authority will set up a regulatory structure to regulate content providers such as Facebook, Youtube, Google, and other CDN providers.
Similarly, some contents aren’t ‘aligned with Nepali Society’ and they are being shown by Nepali service providers. They will look into that matter also.
The letter also points out that the authority will set up the regulatory structure within 2 months.
To carry out the regulation in full swing, the telecommunications authority is forming a sub-committee. The sub-committee will consist of 8 members representing various ISPs, mobile operators, and ministry too. Along with them, the chief coordinator of NTA’s monitoring division will also be there.
The Nepal Telecommunications Authority (NTA) has issued a Press Release informing the installment of the necessary equipment in 725 schools so far.
Similarly, the prescribed equipment has reached 898 community schools.
NTA confirms that the initiation of setting up IT labs in community schools across the country is a part of the government’s Digital Nepal Framework.
In the press release, NTA stated that the company had paid about 30% of the total amount to the supplier organization after finding its work satisfactory in 50% of the monitored schools.
However, the supplier organization could not proceed with training due to the current situation.
NTA started the work of establishing IT labs in at least 4 community schools in each federal constituency across the country under an agreement with OBCI/MAX/NEPA (JV) on September 10, 2019.
The work was supposed to be completed within six months. However, the COVID crisis made it difficult to complete the project before the deadline.
NTA Requests to Register Complaint related to the IT Lab
The Telecommunications Authority has further requested to register any complaints related to the IT lab.
In fact, it is a part of the agreement reached with the community schools. The press release also asks the schools to provide any problem, complaints, or feedback.
The initiation of setting up IT labs is to make teaching methods in community schools qualitative and competitive. Undoubtedly, the intention is to encourage maximum use of information and communication technology.
Recently, Nepal Telecommunications Authority (NTA) issued the Cyber Security Byelaw, 2077 (2020). The objective of this byelaw was to meet cybersecurity standards and show best practices to protect IT infrastructure from various malicious attacks and threats.
Similarly, this document is expected to build trust and confidence of users towards using ICT technology and services of NTA.
On 11th September 2020, the Information Security Response Team Nepal (npCert) and Center For Cyber Security Research and Innovation (CSRI) jointly hosted an open discussion on the topic “Multi Stakeholders Discussion on NTA Cyber Security Byelaw, 2077.
Suresh Bhandari, Program Coordinator and Director at npCERT welcomed panelists and participants with his opening remarks.
The panelists for the discussion were:
Bijay Kumar Roy – Director at Monitoring Division, NTA
Shubha Kayastha – Co-founder/Executive Director at Body & Data
Binay Bohora – MD at Vianet
Binita Shrestha – Manager at NTC
Yasmine Bhattarai – Unit Head at Ncell
The panel discussion was moderated by Chiranjibi Adhikari, President of npCERT.
Discussions, Questions, and Way Forward
Bijay Kumar Roy thanked npCERT for taking the initiation of conducting a discussion on the recently issued byelaw since it is important to clear any confusion.
He went on to explain the role of NTA to bridge the gap due to the digital divide in the country.
Vivek Rana, npCERT advisor and keynote speaker for the discussion gave an insight into the byelaw and its importance through a presentation.
One of the takeaways from his presentation was the need to keep IT and security separate. Since IT creates value and cybersecurity protects value, Vivek Rana suggests not merging these terms.
“Defending is attacking in reverse,” he finished his presentation by reflecting on the importance of defense.
Subha Kayastha was the first to raise a question regarding the byelaw. She asked what will govern other service providers if the byelaw is only for licensees.
Picking on a point from the byelaw, she said that anonymizing data is not enough, it can still be used against the person making it a potential threat.
On the other hand, Panelist Binay Bohra feels that the byelaw has become a bit granular. Moreover, he said that It should’ve defined a perimeter and allowed ISPs to carry out its operations based on that.
Compliance requires time
Panelist Binita Shrestha said that NTC will be working to meet these compliances by breaking them down in phases. “However, we will need some time and prerequisites by coordinating with NTA”, she said.
Likewise, Yasmine Bhattarai explained that it took aggressive meetings and discussions with stakeholders to prepare this document. She also agrees that this byelaw needs more time and work to achieve full compliance. She stressed on building a road map by studying the organization structure to comply quickly and effectively.
Panelist Bijay Kumar Roy seemed ecstatic about how fast this byelaw is gaining momentum and support from the service providers. Since he is a leading person behind this byelaw, he said that discussing and debating the points will only help to improve it.
“I urge everyone to try and comply with it so that we can gradually make revisions if needed”, he said.
In case you missed the discussion, follow this link.
Nepal Telecommunications Authority (NTA) has issued Cyber Security ByeLaw 2077, requiring service providers to conduct mandatory security audits.
The new regulations make mobile and internet service providers responsible for cybersecurity. Experts have praised the efforts of NTA to issue the regulations, especially when cyber threats are on an increasing trend.
The ByeLaw provides that service providers must protect customers’ data. Likewise, they should inform the NTA in case of a cyberattack and prevent it.
Director of NTA, Min Prasad Aryal says that these regulations help to tackle the increasing cyber threats resulted due to the rise in online usage. “Schools, businesses, and other activities have already shifted online and with the increase in internet usage, we can’t ignore the possibilities of misuse. Therefore, NTA issued this ByeLaw to prevent misuse, criminal, and fraudulent activities,” says Director Aryal.
He further adds that the ByeLaw will assist all the mobile and internet service providers licensed by the NTA to make proper policies, manage the workforce and business plans.
Moreover, the bye-law contains items to be checked in an IS Audit, which the service providers will have to report to the NTA.
The Cyber Security ByeLaw covers General Security Standards and Practice, Data Security and Privacy, Information Systems Audit, Cloud Security, Infrastructure and Network Security, Core Security Systems, Application Security, Incident Response, In-House Security Issues including Capacity Building.
“The primary objective of these regulations is to protect consumers’ privacy in compliance with international standards and practice. Also, we hope that it will strengthen the system architecture preventing any unwanted breach of data,” adds Director Aryal.
Furthermore, he said that action would be taken against the companies that did not implement the new regulations as per the Telecommunications Act.
The new bye-law clearly points towards NTA’s growing concern for security. We hope that these regulations strengthen the situation of cybersecurity in Nepal.
What do you think about the new cybersecurity regulations?
The revenue of Nepal Telecom has decreased by more than NPR 2 Billion compared to last year.
In the previous fiscal year, the company’s revenue was a total of Rs 36.86 billion. Compared to this, it has declined by 6.2 percent this year.
Consequently, it has dropped to Rs 34.57 billion.
Reasons Behind this Massive Revenue Decline
We reached out to the Managing Director of Nepal Telecom, Dilli Ram Adhikari to get some answers.
“There was a huge decline in the voice service as a result of the strict nationwide lockdown”, says Adhikari. “Voice service make up around 60-70 percent of Nepal Telecom’s revenue and the massive impact on this service resulted in a decline in our overall revenue.”
The telco had also confirmed that the revenue from leased line services and GSM data was not able to make up for the shortfall in revenue from other services.
Furthermore, Dilli Ram Adhikari claims that the company had observed a significant improvement in the mobile data sector.
However, it couldn’t compensate for the loss due to the revenue decline in voice services.
Is lockdown responsible for this?
Adhikari also gave some insight into the revenue downfall for each month since the lockdown. He said that there was an 18-19% shrinkage in revenue in Chaitra, while it was 29% in Baisakh.
The situations were slightly better in Jestha. Meanwhile, in Asar, the revenue declined by only 5-6% compared to last year.
“The decline in our revenue was seen directly proportional to the amount of impact of lockdown on our nation’s economy”, says Adhikari.
Besides this, Telecom has stated that the decline in income is also due to discounts on various services at the request of the Nepal Telecommunications Authority (NTA) during the lockdown.
The company offered a 30 percent discount on mobile data rates during the lockdown. This alone resulted in about 230 million rupees shortfall.
“We are on our way to tackle our losses and we have seen a significant amount of improvement in our revenue generation in Shrawan”, says Adhikari.
Likewise, the expansion of FTTH and 4G services are going on which will help to cover more areas. According to Adhikari, Nepal Telecom is gaining an average of 10,000 customers each day which shows promising improvements in the revenue generation model.
