In the second week of last October, Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli directed Nepal Telecom Company Limited (Nepal Telecom) to provide quality services. Oli warned the Telecom team that reached the Prime Minister's office not to make any mistakes in serving the people as Nepal Telecom is the asset of the nation.

In an event in the first week of January, Minister of Communication and Information Technology Prithvisubba Gurung also directed the telecommunications and internet service providers to pay attention to quality service delivery.

When reaching from Kathmandu to Pokhara, the communication service is interrupted every kilometer, he pointed out that there is a problem with the quality. "From Nagadhunga to Muglin the phone works in one kilometer, but not in the next," he said, "from Kathmandu to Pokhara, there are many places where the phone does not work." 

There have been criticisms about the quality of telecommunication services in Nepal since the past. Consumers have been continuously complaining and complaining about problems such as phone not working in urban areas, being cut off while talking, data not running, broadband internet speed being less than specified. Although the government has repeatedly given instructions to solve these problems, there has not been much improvement. Experts say that reform is not easy as the main challenges are in the legal and structural aspects.

Officials of the government-owned Nepal Telecom claim that the telecommunication sector is facing problems in providing quality services due to the lack of timely policies. According to the company, there is a problem in expanding the service and ensuring coverage due to the old legal structure. Naveen Kumar Mishra, Assistant Spokesperson of Telecom said that the procedural bottlenecks of the current Telecommunication Act and Procurement Act have affected quality service delivery.

'When we purchase new equipment we need, we have to go through the tender process, if someone is not satisfied, they file a case in the authority, which prevents us from bringing the equipment on time,' Mishra said, 'Nepal Telecom is forced to lag behind when the competitor brings the equipment on time and improves the service. ' 

According to Mishra, it is difficult to maintain the service continuously when there is a problem in the operation of the tower due to the lack of electricity in the urban areas, old towers, large buildings and in the Himalayan and hilly areas. He also said that during road expansion and undergrounding of electricity cables, internet service is interrupted due to cutting of optical fibers. He suggested that one-door system should be implemented by updating the old law for the expansion of quality telecommunication services. 

According to an official of the Regulatory Telecommunication Authority, since the existing law does not provide a basis for the introduction of advanced technologies such as 4G and 5G in mobile phone services, there is a need to work according to regulations and procedures. Authority board member Rabindra Jha stated that even though the authority makes or amends regulations and procedures from time to time for service quality regulation, those regulations/procedures can be challenged in court and stopped. 

"It is difficult for the regulator to take action because of the old law, even when the telecommunication service providers do not provide the specified data and quality," Jha said, "If they do not provide the specified MBPS data, under what rule will they take action?" There is no place in the law. The provision of Rs 50,000 fine implemented in 2053 is ineffective in the current context.

At that time, 50,000 was a big amount. But now the service providers pay easily," said Jha. "No operator insists on having a tower in Manang. We will punish you with 50,000. He pays and stays without the tower. In this way, when the law is old, it is as if the penalty has been turned into an incentive. Consumers have been directly hit by not connecting the tower, not providing quality data or other service quality.

During the quality test, the authority said that many problems are seen in the time it takes to establish the call, the call drop ratio is more than 2 percent, and the coverage of the 4G network. On average, 20 to 30 complaints are received in the complaint management system of the authority.

Telecommunication Service Quality Regulation, 2079 mentions the minimum standards to be maintained while operating telecommunication services. In the regulation, the voice level of the person speaking on the other hand, the time it takes to send an SMS, the availability of the mobile network, the time it takes to open a webpage, the standards and standards of the minimum guarantee of internet speed have been clearly explained in the regulation. 

"In the case of not being able to provide the service by not running the network for more than the specified time, Damasahi shall waive the reasonable fee as compensation to the customer for the inconvenience caused to the customer, or accordingly, the service period shall be extended for free and the customer shall also be informed," it is mentioned in the compensation provisions of the regulation.

Telecommunication expert Seemani Chaulagai said that the main problem behind Nepal's telecommunication service providers' difficulty in providing quality service is the legal aspect. Current old laws have not been able to solve the structural problems of the telecommunication sector. Neither the third party service providers have been able to survive in the market. For this reason, he is of the opinion that law amendment is indispensable to ensure quality service and increase competition in the market.

In order to increase telecommunication access or coverage in rural areas, provisions such as giving tax exemptions in those areas can be included in the Act, Choulagai said. "If we were able to arrange by law the provision of carrier frequencies used in 3G, 4G and microwave frequencies for rural areas for free, access and quality of telecommunication services in rural areas could be improved," he said.