Minister Sharma inaugurates ‘Spectrum Management’ conference

The Nepal Telecom Authority (NTA) has organised Spectrum Management Conference today coinciding with the World Telecommunication and Information Society Day.

NTA Director Deepesh Acharya said in course of the conference interaction would be held with experts on various topics under three sessions entitled ‘Telecom market in Nepal and way forward,’ ‘Emerging mobile technology’ and ‘Present situation of Internet and future needs’, respectively.

Speakers will be presenting papers on different themes as ‘Telecom Market in Least Developed Countries: Challenges and Way Forward’, ‘Present Situation of IT Market in Nepal’, ‘Analysis of Telecom Market in Nepal and its Role in Digital Economy’, ‘Path of 5G in Nepal’, ‘Use of 5G in Developed Countries’, and ‘5G Market in Nepal’.

Minister for Communication and Information Technology Rekha Sharma inaugurated the Conference.

Addressing the inaugural function, the Minister urged the service providers and the regulator to pay special attention in the context of making the ICT-related services accessible for all by rendering them affordable and enhancing their quality.

She said that the government is vigorously working to decrease the gap between those who have access to IT and those without while calling on the service providers to take into account the fact that mobile telephony services have not yet reached the far-flung areas of the country.

Stating that all stakeholders have to work together on reducing this accessibility gap, the CIT Minister said, “The conference should hold intensive discussion on issues like the problems seen in the telecom sector, shortcomings, things to improve upon, increasing revenue from the IT sector, reducing the digital divide, improving the quality of telecommunication services; and what was done in these sectors in the past should also be reviewed.”

Minister Sharma stressed the need for both the government and the private sector to increase investment in the IT sector, adding that the conference should also hold serious discussion on why the revenue from this sector was in a decreasing trend although the use of technology was increasing day by day.

Ministry secretary Krishna Bahadur Raut underscored on utilizing the information technology development and innovation for the country’s economic prosperity and improvement of social life. As he said, the government is committed to constructing the infrastructures aiming to reduce the digital divide and promoting digital inclusiveness.

NTA Chairman Purushottam Khanal said the digital transformation has aided the country’s economic development and the NTA was moving ahead towards building the sustainable infrastructures in this sector.