The Ministry of Information and Communications (MoIC) awarded license to the cable operator about three weeks ago. [break]
The license is the first of its kind issued by the government and the service provides access to better video and audio quality through digital terrestrial medium.
The government awarded the license as per its plan to switch broadcasting platform for television and radio to digital from analogue.
As per this plan, the government has already stopped issuing licenses for operation of analogue cable TV and has asked existing operators to upgrade their transmission format to digital at the earliest.
According to the MoIC, digital transmission will not only provide better experience to viewers but allows the government to track illegal operation and collect royalty in an effective manner.
Megha Broadcast said it was investing around Rs 950 million to make the wireless digital cable TV service available across Nepal.
However, the operator will initially start the service in Kathmandu and gradually expand it to other parts of the country.
Shaileja Regmi, under secretary at the MoIC, said the MMDS license allows the cable operator to provide broadcast service of up to 100 channels.
Although the ministry had previously awarded MMDS license, this is the first MMDS license that encompasses digital technology. With the acquisition of this license, the operator is also preparing to provide data service in the near future.
Regmi said the company has to pay Rs 25,000 per channel as license fee and additional amount is also levied as frequency fee. The ministry has assigned Megha Broadcast with the frequency in the band of 10.4 Ghz to 12.2 Ghz. The operator has paid Rs 1.2 million as spectrum fee. “The operator has to pay 10 percent of the license fee to renew its license,” added Regmi.
Also know as wireless cable or digital terrestrial television, MMDS is a wireless telecommunications technology used for broadband networking and as a substitute to conventional cable television.
Although the technology is more popular in sparsely populated rural areas where laying cable is not economically viable, some companies in countries like the US, Canada, Australia and also Pakistan, Sri Lanka and India are using the service in urban areas as well.
Anup Nepal, an under secretary at the MoIC, said subscribers will need an antenna to receive microwave signals and digital TV channels can then be decoded with the help of set-top boxes.
Similarly, the operator will have to install the tower in the area where it is intending to distribute the service.
“As per the licensing condition, MMDS operator will not have to expand the service across the country,” Nepal said. “They can target a particular city or a village for the operation as it requires installation of tower in every place the cable operator is planning to deliver service.”
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