The telecom policy regime has once again come to a standstill after the Supreme Court stayed the appointment of Digambar Jha to the post of chairman of Nepal Telecommunications Authority (NTA). NTA cannot take any policy decision in the absence of a chairman, said director at NTA Ananda Raj Khanal. Telecom policy regime has been tackling with various crucial issues including Quality of Service, unified licence provision, newly adopted spectrum policy, infrastructure sharing and others, said Khanal, adding sector will be affected if the government fails to manage an alternative to the chairman until the final verdict is given by the Supreme Court.

Ministry of Information and Communications must take a concrete decision to ensure that the policy regime is not affected at the authority due to the absence of a chairman, he opined. Earlier, the ministry had formed a committee at NTA allowing it to take decisions in administrative issues after the resignation of then chairman Bhesh Raj Kanel in July 2012.

The authority to take decisions on internal administrative issues is not sufficient, Khanal said. The government has endorsed unified licence provision and some telecom service providers have already applied for it, he said, adding the telecom sector will be affected if the government fails to implement the unified licence provision.