The government has reallocated Rs 25 billion accumulated in the Rural Telecommunication Development Fund meant for expanding telecom services in rural areas to spend in other areas.

Saraswati Dhakal: Centre for Investigative Journalism-Nepal

Despite a surge in telecommunications and internet connections across the country, Humla’s Namkha rural municipality remains sans telecom connectivity. The locals of ward nos 2, 3, 5 and 6 of the municipality have to trek for three days to make a telephone call. What’s more, the only internet connection at the rural municipality office is too slow, and gets frozen at times.

Namkha Rural Municipality Chief Bishnu Bahadur Tamang says people of his municipality trek for three days to Simkot, the district headquarters, to make a phone call. 

Moreover, a V-Sat telephone tower installed at Limi in the district works occasionally as it gets disrupted during snowfall and functions during sunshine. That’s why locals sprint to take advantage of the sunshine. Tamang grudges, “We are left with nothing than to curse ourselves during emergencies.” He has more to add: “I feel pity for myself for being the people’s representatives, especially when I cannot make a call to request a helicopter during emergencies.”

A local resident sitting atop a cliff searching for network. Photos: Hemanta KC

One of the major challenges currently is the disparity in access to an internet connection that has adversely affected the students of this municipality at a time when urban students with smooth access to the internet are taking distant classes smoothly. As the web connectivity in this rural municipality remains dismal, distant education through the internet is a distant dream for the students here. “Forget about online education, we do not even have the facility to take a patient to hospital during emergencies,” Tamang said.

The rural municipality made all efforts to expand telecommunication service there. “I led three delegations and got assurances from the then Minister for Communication Gokul Prasad Baskota of expanding the services, including mobile in our rural municipality,” a frustrated Tamang said, adding, “Two years passed by but those assurances are yet to be unfulfilled.”  

The person who won the contract two years ago to erect the telecom tower, too, is yet to expedite the work claiming that he has not been able to transport the equipment from Surkhet due to lockdown. “We are in a state of confusion whether or not to trust him,” Tamang said. He added, “We did land in trouble as we could not make the company winning the tender responsible.” 

Dolpa’s Chaarka Tangsong rural municipality, too, is a no different story as five wards, barring ward no 5, are sans telecom and internet facilities. Locals of ward nos 1, 2 and 3 trek for three days to Dunai to make a telephone call. Chairman of the rural municipality, Sonam Gurung said he visited the telecom office more than 200 times in an effort to install a tower at ward no 4. Ward authorities, despite having an ‘extremely slow’ WorldLink internet, at times trek for two days to reach Dunai to upload notice in the rural municipality’s website.

Several rural municipalities in Karnali Province, too, lack telecommunication facilities. For instance, only seven out of the 11 wards in the Soru Rural Municipality of Mugu have telephone service. Unfortunately, it works only during sunny days as the signal disappears during rains. 

“The phone service is utterly poor in wards 1, 5, 8 and 10. Moreover, it takes at least five hours by vehicle to reach the district headquarters to make a telephone call,” says rural municipality deputy-chief Rajya Laxmi Bam. She adds, “The internet in the office functions for three days in a week, and the rest three days are spent for maintenance.”

She shares an instance of how a pregnant woman had suffered due to the unavailability of telephone service. “Had there been a smooth telephone and mobile service, expecting mothers would not have faced trouble since we could call a health volunteer,” she said. In fact, the unavailability of telecom service has hit several rural municipalities of Karnali Province.

Chief of the Sunkoshi Rural Municipality of Okhaldhunga district Rudra Adhikari narrates the woes faced by the people of all the 10 wards of his municipality due to the extremely poor telecom and internet service. “We either have to climb tall trees or go to the veranda of the house or sometimes climb to the hillock to get the signal,” he says adding, “Our repeated complaints at the Ministry of Communication and Information Technology and other offices got unheeded.”

Towers of Nepal Telecom are under construction at Koshebhanjyang of ward-9 and Bhirgaon of ward no 1 for the last three years. However, the work has not been expedited. Says Adhikari, “We will make a decision and entrust technicians to complete the work by confiscating the materials if the construction works are not expedited after the lockdown.”

Dhading’s Tripurasundari rural municipality has telephone and internet services. Rural municipality Chief Shambhu Kumar Thapa says despite having facilities, the quality of the services is terribly poor particularly due to lack of coordination and collaboration. Nepal Telecom, N-Cell, Smart Telecom have been providing services while Subisu has provided internet facility in the rural municipality. The service of Subisu has been operated and managed by the trust of Rural Telecom.

Rs 150 per call/minute

Out of the 9 rural wards in the She-Phoksundo Rural Municipality of Dolpa, ward nos 5, 6 and 7 lack access to telephone and internet services. Unfortunately, while urban dwellers pay Re 1 per call/minute, locals of Dolpa are compelled to pay Rs 150 per/minute. Reason: High rate of satellite phones. Despite being expensive, people are bound to make emergency phone calls through satellite phones. According to Tashi Tundup Gurung, Chairman of the rural municipality, locals use satellite phone calls during emergencies.

“The problem is common in all the wards. We sometimes have to climb uphill to get tower signals,” he said adding, “You know what, I have climbed a hillock to talk to you.”

According to him, he brought the satellite phone for emergency purposes after getting elected to the post of the rural municipality chairman. “We receive phone calls from the wards through a satellite phone and make decisions on whether to call an ambulance or carrier by apprehending the condition of the patient. While well-off people pay the bills, the rural municipality pays for people who cannot afford the bill,” Gurung said.

Locals of these wards have been facing hardship to make telephone calls. In such a situation, forget about giving online classes to the students of Dolpa, they have not been able to talk with their parents who are currently working as migrant workers abroad.

Prabhu Bank established its branch in She-Phoksundo Rural Municipality some 9 months ago. According to Bank Manager Tema Gurme Gurung, the bank has been providing banking services through the Subisu internet via satellite. “We, however, often face technical issues while using the internet. Besides, the service is too slow. The system, particularly during the end of the fiscal year does not support due to heavy internet traffic,” Gurung said adding, “When the internet service works smoothly, there are no customers.”

Meanwhile, out of the six villages in ward-1 of She-Phoksundo rural municipality, only one village, Nidal, has access to telephone service, according to ward chair Jigme Lama. Locals are compelled to be physically present at the ward office for any information or complaints, and it takes more than 1 hour on foot to reach the ward office while half-an-hour on horse-back. Lama says he, too, has been accustomed to walking for nearly half-an-hour to a highland or a hillock and ma a phone call to Kathmandu or other places. “Since there are no trees nearby to climb, we walk uphill to catch the signal on the phone,” quips Lama.

Rs 25 billion elsewhere

The government established the Rural Telecommunication Development Fund in 1997 in a bid to develop, extend and operate telecommunication service in the rural areas. The charge collected from the customers is directly deposited to the fund. 

The NTA started collecting the fund in the Fund as per the provision of the Telecommunications Act 1997, Section 30 sub-section (4).

All service provider companies or licensee have been depositing 2 percent of their annual income every year in the fund. A total of Rs 25 billion has been collected in the fund so far. However, the accumulated fund has remained largely unutilized to develop or extend telecommunication to rural areas due to which people have remained sans telecommunication facilities.

So much so that the fund has been currently downsized to Rs 8 billion. Meanwhile, instead of spending the fund money to expand telecom services, the Ministry of Finance has decided to reallocate the money into the government account upon realizing that the government had missed the revenue collection target because of which is sure to have a chain-effect on current expenditure. Coincidentally, both the ministries–Ministry of Communication and Ministry of Finance–have been headed by the same minister. 

While the Finance Ministry has already reallocated Rs 5 billion into its account, it is preparing to reallocate another Rs 11 billion within July this year as the Nepal Telecom Authority failed to utilize the fund to expand its services in rural areas. According to Min Prasad Aryal, Spokesperson at the Nepal Telecom Authority, while Rs 5 billion has already been reallocated to the government account, the rest amount will be deposited until mid-July.

Managing Director at Nepal Telecom, Dilli Ram Adhikari, however, claims that the amount deposited at the Rural Telecommunication Development Fund needs to be utilized for the expansion of telecom services in rural areas. “It’s, in fact, not as easy as deemed to expand telecommunication services in the mountainous region. Moreover, there has to be electricity in the area. In the absence of electricity, we need to provide solar service, which, however, is not reliable as it is fully dependent on sunshine, and those areas mostly witness snow.”

He adds, “Several service providers have been providing services in accessible areas, whereas Nepal Telecom has to reach out to extremely difficult regions. Therefore, the government must mobilize the Rural Telecommunication Development Fund.”

Construction of a BTS Tower in a rural area needs approximately Rs 7.5 million. Moreover, transportation cost is extremely high, higher than the cost of the equipment. “We can provide services to any part of the country provided that the government facilitated in transporting equipment,” Adhikari says, adding, “If the government constructed the infrastructure from the Rural Telecommunication Development Fund, and adopt the policy of joint-cooperation, service seekers can enjoy smooth internet service. Moreover, they will have the opportunity to choose whatever service they want to connect with. Furthermore, this will also minimize the dual expenditure on physical infrastructure.”

Information Technology expert Manohar Bhattarai argues it is unwise to reallocate the fund collected from the taxpayers’ money to compensate for the government’s revenue. 

Says Bhattarai, “The Fund, which has been established to extend and operate the telecom services, has to be utilized accordingly. The government’s decision to reallocate the Fund has ridiculed its slogan of Digital Nepal. The slogans have been limited to papers.”

All concerned stakeholders, including the Ministry of Information, Nepal Telecom Authority, and other service providers are aware of the condition of communication in rural areas. Even the Nepal Teleco with 92 percent of the government’s investment, has been receiving scores of complaints. However, neither the NT nor the Fund have addressed the problems.

Says Dilli Ram Adhikari, Managing Director of Nepal Telecom, “There is a stiff competition in urban areas. However, since NT has the sole responsibility to provide service in rural areas, the government needs to support the expansion of telecom services in rural areas sans competition and profit. Or else, the money from the Rural Telecommunication Development Fund has to be mobilized.”