TikTok users protest against government ban

TikTok users today protested against the government decision to ban the app.

Expressing their displeasure against the government’s decision of banning the popular social media application, the TikTok users gathered at Maitighar Mandala and protested against the government's decision.

They argued that the government has curtailed their right to freedom of expression by banning the video-sharing site TikTok. They also advised the government not to be afraid of TikTok users and demanded immediately lifting the ban.

Claiming that TikTok has had a negative impact on social harmony, the government -- on November 13 -- banned the TikTok, which is being used as a social networking site in Nepal. The government also accused TikTok of not cooperating with it to minimise such activities and take action against those involved.

After the government banned TikTok, the platform wrote a letter to the Nepal Telecommunication Authority (NTA), stating that it was surprised by the government ban. “We provided the Nepal government access to the ‘Trust and Safety Enforcement Tool,’ a portal for direct content removal requests as per Nepal’s laws. Furthermore, we registered as a digital service taxpayer,” TikTok said in its letter.

The Nepal Telecommunication Authority (NTA), coming into immediate action -- which is very unlikely in Nepal -- ordered all the Internet Service Providers (ISPs) to ban the application. The telecommunication sector regulator ahs also formed a technical committee led by director Bijay Kumar Rai for the effective implementation of the government's decision to ban TikTok in the country.

However, on Friday, as many as 10 writ petitions have been filed at the Supreme Court challenging the government’s decision to ban the TikTok.

According to the Supreme Court, the apex court will conduct an initial hearing on the petitions on Monday.

NTA, Nepal Telecom seal deal to lay optical fibre in Karnali, Sudurpaschim provinces

Nepal Telecommunications Authority (NTA) and Nepal Telecom (NT) today signed an agreement to lay 2,500-kilometre-long optical fibre in the Karnali Province and Sudurpaschim Province along the East-West Highway, Mid-Hill Highway and Postal Highway.
On the occasion, chairman of NTA Purushottam Khanal and managing director of NT Dilli Ram Adhikari signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) – on behalf of their respective institutions – to lay the optical fibre cables within two years. They will sign construction agreement within a month, after detailed study of the project.
Following the construction agreement, Nepal Telecom will be responsible for laying optical fibre cables in both the provinces in areas stretching from Musikot of Rukum to Jhulaghat of Baitadi district. It will lay minimum 96 core optical fibre cables along the aforementioned three highways and 48 core optical fibre cables along routes connecting the highway with the headquarters of 20 districts, a press note issued by the Nepal Telecom reads. “Likewise, it will lay 24 core optical fibre cables in routes connecting the highway with different municipalities in these districts.”
According to the government’s plans to make a communication super highway, we have accelerated the fibre laying works,” Khanal said, expressing hope that the entire project will be completed within the set deadline. “Laying the optical fibre along various highways and connecting areas is part of the government’s long-term target to expand broadband network across all district headquarters, municipalities, schools and health centres.”
The agreement for laying optical fibre cables will play a crucial role in achieving the goals set through the Broadband Policy 2015 and the National Information and Communication Policy, the press note reads, adding that the NTA had – in June 2016 – signed another agreement with Nepal Telecom to lay optical fibre cables along the East-West Highway and the project is nearing completion. “The NTA had scrapped its earlier agreement with Smart Telecom – on October 28 – citing snail-paced work and lack of significant progress in laying fibre cables in Karnali and Sudurpaschim provinces.” Smart had been awarded the contract in September 2017, with the completion deadline of two years.
Nepal Telecom managing director Adhikari, on the occasion, expressed his commitment to complete the project on schedule. “Nepal Telecom will soon call a global tender and award the contract to lay the optical fibre in the two provinces.”

Nepal Telecom Authority to set up IT centres in 124 remote villages

The Nepal Telecommunications Authority is setting up IT service centres at 124 remote villages to provide integrated government services, in line with the government’s ambitious Digital Nepal Framework-2018 that envisions a ‘digital society’ with 90 per cent of the population having access to broadband services by 2020.
The Information Service Centre Formation and Management Work plan – prepared by the authority –plans to install four computers, printing machines and networking equipment and expand broadband facilities from those centres to wards, health centres and community schools.
The information centre project has been launched to combat digital exclusion in 124 rural municipalities, which has no access to telecommunications facilities as of date.
According to acting chairman of the Nepal Telecommunications Authority Purushottam Khanal, the regulator is starting a tender process for procurement of equipment within a month. The authority has estimated that it will take around Rs 90.52 million to procure equipment to establish those centres. “The authority plans to mobilise funds collected by levying telecom operators service charges amounting to 2 per cent of their gross income to execute the project,” he added. “Almost half of the shortlisted local levels are located in the western provinces of Karnali (26) and Sudurpashchim (28), in line with the by-laws which state that the authority must give special priority to rural communities without access to internet and with measurable presence of marginalised and economically backward denizens.

Government prepares to sack NT MD Rajbhandari and NTA chair Jha

The government has sought clarification from managing director of Nepal Telecom (NT), Kamini Rajbhandari, in a move to sack her.
Though the clarification has been sought doubting her managerial efficiency and blaming her for falling competitiveness of the telecom service provider in domestic sector, the government is planning to sack her, according to a high level source at the Ministry of Information and Communications.
The cabinet meeting today has decided to seek clarification from Rajbhandari, who is the first managing director in the history of Nepal Telecom to be selected from free competition. She still has almost 3 years to complete her tenure.
The source at the Ministry claimed that the efficiency of Nepal Telecom’s management has been deteriorating in recent times, compelling the government to seek clarification from the telecom service provider's top management.
Though the source also claimed that the Ministry will take necessary decisions only after analysing the clarification by Rajbhandari, clarification is sought to sack her.   
However, Rajbhandari said that she is yet to receive a letter from the government seeking her clarification.
The majority government led by Prime Minister K P Oli has also asked Nepal Telecommunications Authority (NTA) – the regulatory authority of the telecom service providers – chair Digamber Jha not to take any decision in a clear indication that he could also be sacked.
But the frequent changes in the regulatory authority on the basis of political ideology will create anarchy in the market impacting the consumers due to weak regulator. 

Landline telephones to have 10 digit numbers

The fixed and limited mobility phone numbers – like the mobile numbers – will soon have 10 digits from the next fiscal year.

As the telecom regulator is going to review the existing telephone numbering system under the new National Numbering Plan (NNP), all the telephone lines – popularly known as landlines or fixed lines – in the country will have 10 digits.

Currently, fixed line and limited mobility services like the ones provided by United Telecom Ltd (UTL) have nine-digit phone numbers including the area code.

"It will not only standardise the numbering system but also support growth and development of the telecommunications sector, according to the Nepal Telecommunications Authority (NTA).
"The 10-digit landlines number will start from 20, whereas limited mobility phones will start from 24, telephone numbers of Rural Telecommunication Services will start from 29, fixed wireless phones will start from 22 and IP Telephony will start from 21," the authority said, adding that the mobile phone numbers, however, will remain unchanged as they are already having 10 digits. "But, they will have two-digit operator code."

Nepal Telecom has been using 4, 5 and 6 as operator code at present.

Similarly, Ncell has 0 and 1, whereas Smart Telecom recently received 9 as its operator code.

The telecom authority has only four operator codes remaining at its existing system. "It will be difficult for the authority to assign codes to new operators,” the NTA said, adding that the change – two-digit operator code – will give enough space for the new operators. "Otherwise, the existing single-digit operator code allows operators to distribute 10 million lines from each code."

Earlier, a team led by telecom expert on national numbering Gyanendra Man Baidhya had recommended to the NTA to implement a new numbering system with 10-digit numbers.

The six telecom service providers – Ncell, NT, Smart Telecom, UTL, Nepal Satellite Telecom and CG Communications – in the country have the potential to serve more than 50 million subscribers under the existing numbering system. "But the capacity will increase to over 200 million giving enough room for another three decades of expansion.
The telecom regulator will give the operators six months to switch to the new numbering plan that has plans to charge the operators for the numbers allocated to operators by separating them into commercial lines and non-commercial lines. It will help best utilise scarce numbering and discourage operators from hoarding numbers. Bangladesh and Pakistan have been charging per subscriber fees from their operators annually.

TeliaSonera cuts fiscal year outlook on mobile slowdown, Nepal records strongest sales growth at 62.7 per cent

TeliaSonera lowered its outlook for the full year due to a slowdown in key mobile markets.

The operator now expects organic sales flat to one per cent higher, versus an earlier outlook for one to two per cent growth, according to the operator.

Underlying sales growth slowed from 2.9 per cent in the first quarter to zero in the second quarter.

The company forecast an adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) margin slightly lower over the full year, after earlier expecting a stable result. Adjusted EBITDA was down by two per cent year-on-year in the second quarter to Swedish Krona (SEK) 9.01 billion, and the margin fell by one per cent point to 34.3 per cent.

TeliaSonera's quarterly net profit grew by 10 per cent to SEK 4.25 billion, due to a capital gain of SEK 3.01 billion from its stake in Megafon, offset by impairment charges of SEK 3.07 billion on some of its mobile activities.

Free cash flow jumped to SEK 14.79 billion, thanks to a dividend of SEK 11.72 billion from Megafon. The subscriber base rose in the three months by 1.4 million at consolidated companies and 0.8 million at associate companies, to a total 174.6 million.

The Eurasia activities continued to grow, with revenues up by 18.9 per cent to SEK 4.93 billion and EBITDA 15 per cent higher at SEK 2.48 billion. While revenue growth in local currency slowed to 1.6 per cent in Kazakhstan, hurt by price competition and interconnection rate cuts, Armenia sales rose by 10.4 per cent, Uzbekistan was up by 13.9 per cent, and Tajikistan increased 17 per cent.

Nepal had the strongest sales growth at 62.7 per cent, while Georgia was up by three per cent, and Moldova grew by just 0.2 per cent. Capital expenditure increased to 32.6 per cent of sales, or SEK 1.61 billion.

However, the mobile division posted sales down by 2.3 per cent to SEK 12.58 billion, and EBITDA fell by nine per cent to SEK 3.70 billion.

Weaker sales were due to a slowdown in growth in Sweden (sales up by 3.9 per cent) and Spain (up by 3.8 per cent) and lower revenues in Finland (down by 4.9 per cent), Norway (down by 6.1 per cent) and Denmark (down by 14 per cent) due to lower voice revenues, regulatory price cuts and the move to 'bucket' price plans.

The operator added just 0.2 million new mobile customers in the three months, for a total 19.4 million.

At the broadband division, sales dropped by 0.8 per cent to SEK 9.09 billion, and EBITDA was down 3.6 per cent to SEK 2.80 billion. Sales in Sweden fell by 3.6 per cent to SEK 5.05 billion, and revenues in Finland dropped by 3.2 per cent to SEK 1.45 billion. Both markets saw growth in TV services, but continued to suffer from lower voice revenues and PSTN subscribers.

The latter fell by 121,000 in the quarter to 3.8 million, while TV subscribers grew by 30,000 to 1.2 million.

Samsung surpasses Nokia to become world's largest handset maker

Samsung passed Nokia to become the world's biggest mobile phone maker
in the first quarter, according to Strategy Analytics.
The market researcher estimates that Samsung sold 93.5 million
handsets, versus a reported 82.7 million at Nokia. "Samsung took a
record 25.4 per cent of the market, up from 19.3 per cent a year ago,"
it reported, adding that Nokia fell to 22.5 per cent from 30.4 per
cent in the year-earlier period, ending its 14-year reign as the
world's biggest handset vendor.
Samsung was also the top smartphone seller in the quarter, passing
Apple to reach a 31 per cent market share. Samsung's smartphone sales
rose an estimated 253 per cent annually to 44.5 million, while Apple's
shipments of 31.5 million accounted for a market share of 24 per cent.
"On the total phone market, Apple had a share of 9.5 per cent, up from
5.2 a year ago," according to Strategy Analytics that estimated the
total mobile phone market expansion of three per cent year-on-year to
368 million units in the first quarter of 2012.
"It was led by a 41 per cent increase in global smartphone shipments
to an estimated 145 million units in the first quarter of 2012," the
researcher added.

Spam activity on the rise this year

There was a fluctuating spam activity throughout the year, with average spam levels reaching 89.1 per cent, up by 1.4 per cent compared with 2009, according to Symantec'sMessageLabs Intelligence 2010 security report.
Spam from botnets accounted for an average of 88.2 per cent of all spam this year. The total number of botnets worldwide currently ranges between 3.5 and 5.4 million. Rustock remains the most dominant botnet, while Grum and Cutwail are the second and third largest respectively. This year, there were more than 339,600 different malware strains identified in malicious emails blocked, representing over a hundred-fold increase since 2009.
The massive increase was largely due to the growth in polymorphic malware variants, generated from toolkits that allow a new version of the code to be easily generated. Targeted attacks increased from ten per day to nearly 60 per day in 2010 and by the end of the year, MessageLabs blocked 77 targeted attacks each day.
This year, the average number of new malicious websites blocked each day rose to 3,066 versus 2,465 in 2009, an increase of 24.3 per cent.
MessageLabs identified malicious web threats on 42,926 distinct domains, most of which were compromised legitimate domains. In 2010 the annual average global spam rate was 89.1 per cent, up by 1.4 per cent from 2009.
In August, the global spam rate peaked at 92.2 per cent when the proportion of spam sent from botnets rose to 95 per cent as a new variant of the Rustock botnet was seeded and quickly put to use. In 2010, the average rate for malware contained in email traffic was 1 in 284.2 emails (0.352 per cent) almost flat compared with one in 286.4 (0.349 per cent) for 2009, the report said.
This yera, over 115.6 million emails were blocked by Skeptic, an increase of 58.1 per cent compared with 2009. There were 339.673 different malware strains identified in the malicious emails blocked. This represents over a hundred fold increase over 2009 and is mainly due to growth in polymorphic malware variants.
In 2010, the average ratio of email traffic blocked as phishing attacks was 1 in 444.5 (0.23 per cent), compared with 1 in 325.2 (0.31 per cent) in 2009, the report said, adding that around 95.1 billion phishing emails were projected to be in circulation in 2010.

Apple delays Sim card plans

Apple has decided to delay its planned launch of its own Sim card until 2012 at the earliest, reports Les Echos without naming its sources.

The company has been working with Gemalto for three months on the project but major US and European operators have blocked the move, it said, adding that some even threatened to stop selling the iPad in their stores.

According to Les Echos, Apple does not want to depend on a single Sim card supplier to set the parameters and remotely administer the Sim cards.

Earlier, Apple was working with Gemalto on an iPhone with an embedded Sim card. The network information would be supplied wirelessly and saved in the handset’s memory.

According to the reports, this means a major strategy shift for Apple, opening the way for direct sales via iTunes: users first buy an iPhone and then choose a network. The current type of Sim card, which can be removed from the handset and changed, is central to the relationship between the operator and the customers, and as a result operators are not willing to let this go easily.

The term Sim refers to two things: the Subscriber Identity Module (Sim) that holds the customer and network’s unique details, and the physical case for this, the Sim card. The card is central to the operator’s relationship with the end-user; a Sim card from operator A does not work on the network of operator B.

Gemalto has developed a product for Apple that saves the information on a secure part of the phone’s memory, GigaOM reported citing sources at European operators. This type of System-on-a-Chip (SoC) includes a small operating system and memory for encrypted information, such as the user identity. There is also room for other secured applications, such as for mobile payments (Apple holds a number of patents for NFC). Gemalto will reportedly also supply a platform to manage subscriber details and support over-the-air updates. Several European operators have reportedly already spoken with Apple about the plans, but no one would confirm the talks, and Apple and Gemalto refused to comment.

The Financial Times writes that various European operators are concerned about the possible loss of control in their relationship with the subscribers. They are considering taking action against Apple, such as refusing to subsidy its handsets. One manager told the paper that Apple is risking 'war'. Vodafone, France Telecom and Telefonica were named by the paper, but none of them would comment.

Apple’s plans have technical advantages. With the identity saved in the phone, the Sim and its card are no longer needed, allowing for a flatter and simpler handset to produce.

The physical distribution and management of Sims is no longer needed either, saving costs. Operators and other brands will not profit directly from this, as the Sim card and its related infrastructure will likely continue for some years for other customers and handset brands.

Nepal has 9.63 million telephony users

Nepal has 9.63 million telephony users till September 14, up from 9.34 million telephony users at August 14, according to figures from the Nepal Telecommunications Authority (NTA).
The mobile operators has 8.30 million subscribers by September 14 -- up from 8.03 million a month earlier. "Of the total, 7.46 million were GSM users -- up from 7.21 million a month earlier and the remainder use Nepal Telecom's (NT) CDMA service, called Sky Phone.
Nepal Telecom led in GSM subscribers with a customer base of 4.03 million, followed by Spice Nepal (Ncell) with 3.43 million, according to the NTA data till September 14.
The competition between the telecom service providers is increasing as they both are trying to out do each other.
Nepal Telecom further ended the period with 4,099 3G subscribers, similar to the previous month. The number of fixed telephony users in Nepal stood at 840,104 -- up from 838,026 in mid-August. "Of the total, 597,085 were PSTN users and 243,019 were WLL users," the data revelas.
Nepal Telecom had 587,457 PSTN users, followed by STM Telecom Sanchar with 4,841 customers, Nepal Satellite Telecom with 885 customers, and Smart with 3,902 PSTN customers.
Nepal Telecom also had 173,326 WLL users and UTL had 69,693 WLL subscribers.
Meanwhile, Nepal counted 2.10 million internet users as of September 14, up from 1.76 million internet users a month earlier, and the penetration rate stood at 7.49 per cent.
Some 1.88 million people connect to the internet using GPRS, followed by 101,464 internet users that connect through CDMA 1X. Some 49,406 people use ADSL and there were also 32,500 cable internet users, and 27,137 dial-up users.
Similarly, 13,000 internet users connect through wireless or fibre optic technologies, according to the data.
Recently, Ncell -- the Nepali subsidiary company of TeliaSonera -- has launched the world's highest mobile base station to provide 3G signal at Everest Base Camp.
The installation will also help tens of thousands of tourists and trekkers who visit the world's highest mountain every year. The 3G services will be fast enough to make video calls and use the Internet, said the company, which also claims the world's lowest 3G base at 1,400 metres below sea level in a mine in Europe.

Internet user base climbs by 160 per cent

The total number of internet users has grown by a significant a whopping 160 per cent within a year, according to the Nepal Telecom Authority (NTA) -- the regulator of the telecom service providers -- latest report.

"At the end of fiscal year 2009-10, the number of internet users rose to 1,359,805, from 515,592 a fiscal year ago, the data revealed.

A sizeable portion of the growth is attributed to the number of people accessing the internet through General packet radio service (GPRS)-enabled mobile phones, it said, adding "which has helped internet penetration to increase to 4.85 per cent."

Of these, GPRS internet users accounted for 1.153 million, up a massive 800,000 in twelve months.

GPRS is a packet oriented mobile data service on the 2G and 3G cellular communication systems global system for mobile communications (GSM).

Meanwhile, the number of Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line (ADSL) subscribers to Nepal Telecom (NT) increased to 45,435 from 15,661 previously.

ADSL is one form of the Digital Subscriber Line technology, a data communications technology that enables faster data transmission over copper telephone lines than a conventional voiceband modem can provide.

However, the telecom authority also reported that the number of subscribers of dial-up, wireless modem, cable modem, optical fibre, earth net and cable net subscribers fell over the same period, standing at 73,186, compared to 1,13,406 a year earlier.

Operators at by guess and by gosh on telecom service quality

The telecom service providers today blamed the power outage, poor infrastructure and remote geographical conditions for the low quality of telecom services.
"The long hours of power outage has hit Nepal Telecom's battery backup design that was capable of supplying power for only four to five hours," said Bishwanath Goel, managing director of Nepal Telecom that provides GSM and CDMA services in all 75 districts of the country.
"Most of the complaints are related to Radio Frequency Optimisation (RFO) but 16-hour power oputage has hit its rapid expansion," he said adding that NT received 77 complaints related to RFO from January to June this year. "NT is installing generators in 10 BTS towers, 12-hour back-up capacity will be installed in 10 BTS towers and solar equipment in another 10 BTS towers," he repeated the plans of NT to counter complaints.
However, Goel did not explain why NT had not improved the quality of its services even though the load-shedding hours have come down to 10 hours a week from 16 hours a day.
Chandi Shrestha of Spice Telecom -- the telecom service provider under the brand name Mero Mobile -- also described his company's plans to sell 25,00,000 SIM cards by the end of this year. "Most of the problems arise due to consumers' habits," he said adding that consumer education is also key to better telecom services. He, however accepted that the telecom service providers have failed to educate consumers.
He urged the telecom regulator to play the role of facilitator, whereas chairman of the regulator -- Nepal Telecom Authority (NTA) -- Bhesraj Kandel advised the operators to upgrade service quality alongwith the service expansion. "Regulator should also interfere, the operators do not abide by regulations," he said citing the example of NTA forcing them to reduce interconnection charges.
"NTA as regulator has also fixed parameters for quality of service," Kandel added. NTA has licensed three operators for basic telephony service, two for cellular mobile service, eight for network service, 38 for Internet service, 90 for VSAT and three for GMPCS.
"The Internet Service Providers (ISPs) are lagging behind in comparison to telecom operators," said Pawan Shakya, president of Association of ISPs.

NTA to bring service providers in line

Nepal Telecom Authority (NTA) -- the regulatory authority of telecom service providers -- is slowly applying pressure to make them comply with its directives reducing interconnection charge.
"We are slowly putting pressure on service providers," said a high level source at NTA that had on January 8 issued directives to the telecom service providers to operate under Section 15 of the Telecommunication Act-2053 BS.
NTA has informed all its service providers -- Nepal Telecom (NT), United Telecom Ltd (UTL), Spice Nepal Pvt Ltd and STM Telecom Communication Pvt Ltd -- to reduce Interconnection Usage Charge (IUC) in order benefit consumers.
NTA had urged them to reduce the interconnection charge from February 12, but till date not a single service provider has complied.
According to the NTA directive, the charge for calling from one mobile service provider to another mobile service provider should be reduced to 54 paisa per minute. The mobile service providers are currently charging Rs 1 to Rs 2.25 per minute.
"We are not against providing cheaper services to our consumers," Amarnath Singh, managing director of NT said adding that it was ready to reduce the interconnection charge.
"However, at present we are studying the probability of the interconnection charge reduction," he said. Currently, NT is also charged with poor quality of its mobile service. Singh blamed irregular power supply for the worsening quality of the NT mobile service. The batteries of the BTS towers could not be charged due to prolonged powercut.
According to technocrats, they have planned the BTS towers keeping in mind only six to eight hours of power disruption. "Naturally, the BTS towers cannot work properly because of the present over 16-hour powercut," Singh said adding that NT is planning to install solar power panels or generators for back-up for the BTS towers. "The upgradation of BTS is also on the cards," the managing director of NT -- that is planning to hold its annual general meeting sometime in the first week of April after it became a company -- spelled out.
However, according to experts power plays only a 40 per cent role in the mobile service quality. "The planning and networking, designing, quality of equipment, radio frequency optimisation and topography play vital role in the overall quality of mobile phone service," said Ananda Raj Khanal, director at the regulatory authority of the telecom service providers.