Nepal's first private cellphone service by August

Sumali Moitra

KOLKATA: A joint venture between Indian business group ModiCorp and a Nepali

trading house, the Khetans, will launch the Himalayan kingdom's first private

mobile phone service by August, an official said on Saturday.

Spice Nepal, the joint venture firm in which the Indian partner has an 80-per

cent stake, was to start the service kingdom last year itself. "We have had

some legal and administrative delays. We now plan to start services in

three-four months time," RS Desikan, Spice Nepal's chief, told Reuters by

telephone from Kathmandu.

Spice Nepal's cellphone launch was delayed after workers of state-run Nepal

Telecommunications Corp, which enjoyed a monopoly over cellphone services

earlier, filed a case demanding that NTC's monopoly should continue.

But Nepal's Supreme Court in August last year rejected the workers' plea.

"The services will initially be launched in Kathmandu and later extended to

other areas. We are working out an attractive tariff package to benefit

customers," Desikan said.

He said the firm expected a sizeable portion of its revenues to come from

tourists with roaming facilities on their mobile phones, but did not give

details. "Nepal is an attractive market and we are looking at adding

between half a million to one million subscribers over a 10-year time

frame," Desikan said.

Nepal said in March 2000 that it would allow private operators to start

mobile phone services as a part of its drive to liberalize the economy. In

November 2000, ModiCorp, a holding company of India's BK Modi Group, won a

10-year licence to run the first private mobile phone service in the mountainous

kingdom in partnership with the Khetans.

Nepal Telecommunications Corp began its mobile phone services in 1999, but it

has faced a problem because high prices have discouraged customers.