Kathmandu, Oct 13: The ‘Telecommunications Traffic Monitoring and Fraud Control System’ (TERAMOCS), which is supposed to help control revenue leakage in the telecommunication sector. However, it seems that it will be difficult to implement this technology as the lawmakers are unaware of it. Lawmakers who attended a meeting of the Public Accounts Committee of the House of Representatives on Friday stressed the need for further study on ‘TERAMOCS’.
Member of the Accounts Committee Manish Jha said that although TERAMOCS is said to help discipline telecom companies, it is yet to be understood how this technology will work. Member of Parliament Saraj Ahmed Farooqui asked,’What is the reason for increasing number of customers in Telecom but decreasing revenue?.’He stressed the need for further discussions on TERAMOCS technology.
Lawmaker Ram Krishna Yadav said the general consumers were not satisfied as the telecom was not active in its work. He also stressed the need for holding another meeting on TERAMOCS technology and discussing it again and reaching a decision. Tara Magar stressed the need to find out the reasons for the opposition of Telecom and Ncell regarding TERAMOCS. He said that a special committee should be formed to discuss this technology. He said that if the revenue increases after the implementation of TERAMOCS, then it should be brought. Lawmaker Yadav said that the call tap and record should be clarified.
Lawmaker Pradeep Yadav demanded that a sub-committee should be formed including experts to discuss the issue. He drew the attention of the Accounts Committee to the technology being implemented without making a law. Lawmaker Sanjaya Kumar Gautam said that the documents related to this technology should be submitted to the committee. Lawmaker Rajendra Kumar KC said that it’s a little difficult to bring TERAMOCS technology.
Gokul Baskota said that extensive discussion should be held with telecom officials, engineers and operators regarding TERAMOCS. He suggested not to rush to implement this technology. Lawmaker Janardan Sharma said it was necessary to understand this technology as no one had any knowledge about it. He said experts, ministers and others should sit and come to the conclusion of this technology.
Committee directs to submit documents related to ‘TERAMOCS’ within seven days
The Public Accounts Committee (PAC) has directed the authorities concerned to bring out all documents related to the TERAMOCS project.The meeting held on Friday directed the Nepal Telecommunications Authority (NTA) to submit all documents related to TERAMOCS project within seven days.
The committee has directed to submit the documents from the beginning of the technology purchase process to the present as a detailed study has to be done regarding the process of purchasing TERAMOCS technology. Committee President Rishikesh Pokharel has directed NTA to submit the activities related to the decision regarding ‘TERAMOCS’ within seven days.
What was the decision in the committee meeting ?
The committee meeting has directed the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology, NTA and concerned bodies to recover any remaining revenue from the telecom service providers in Nepal to the state within three months. The committee has also directed to take action against the service providers who do not pay the revenue within the stipulated time and inform the committee about it.
The committee concluded that the progress of the projects being implemented under the Rural Telecommunication Development Fund was slow. A meeting of the committee has directed NTA to expedite the work of laying optical fibre on the information highway.
Similarly, the committee has stated that the telecommunication service price in the global market is declining due to competition and no measures have been sought to reduce the price in relation to Nepal. Therefore, the committee has also directed the NTA to take appropriate initiatives to provide quality services at the minimum price.
According to the committee, among the licenses issued to private telecom service providers to operate the service, the issue of selling the license of Smart Telecom has been carried out illegally. The committee has also directed not to proceed with this process as the liability to be paid by the company has not been paid.
The committee has requested to postpone the process related to sale of license of this company for the time being. Similarly, the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology and NTA have been directed to provide documents related to the license sale to the committee.
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