Nepal’s National Telecommunications Authority (NTA) has nullified the Basic Telecommunications Services licence of Nepal Satellite Telecom (NST) due to outstanding regulatory fees.
The Himalayan Times reports that the regulator took the decision to revoke NST’s operating licence after the operator failed to adequately explain why it missed a July deadline to pay arrears of NPR350 million (USD2.9 million).
TeleGeography notes that this is not the first time that NST has lost its operating licence – the NTA previously cancelled NST’s permit in August 2019 over its failure to pay NPR1.387 billion in fees for licence renewal, royalties, spectrum use, and Rural Telecommunications Fund levies.
NST appealed against the decision, and in January 2020 Nepal’s government restored the licence on the condition that NST would pay its outstanding fees in instalments across the next five years. However, the agreement also stipulated that NST’s licence would be revoked again if it missed any of its scheduled payments.
