SC Allows NT to Install CDMA System

Kathmandu, Janu 24- The Supreme Court opened way to the Nepal Telecom by allowing it to install the Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) system with which the NT plans to launch the Wireless Local Loop (WLL) telephone service in the country.

A division bench of Justices Badri Kumar Basnet and Top Bahadur Magar quashed the writ petitions seeking the apex court order to bar the NT from installing the system. "There is no ground to issue order as sought by the writ petitioners," the bench ruled while pronouncing the verdict.

The NT told the SC that the company plans to distribute over one million wireless local lines across the country after installation of the CDMA system.

The NT, in its figure produced before the apex court, had said it had already spent over one billion rupees to prepare to install the system estimated to cost about three billion rupees.

On July 11, the apex court had issued the stay order barring the NT from installing the CDMA system.

Advocates Bishnu Prasad Dhakal, Arjun Prasad Uprety and a businessman Sanjeev Parajuli had filed petitions raising questions over the process of acquiring permission from the government to install the system .

They claimed that the government gave a go ahead to the NT to launch the WLL service under the CDMA system without completing required legal process.

While issuing the stay order the SC had raised serious doubts over the payment of tax by the NT while getting permission to launch the CDMA.

The petitioners had claimed that it was improper to provide authority to the NT without issuing a tender notice to provide a chance for every Nepali citizen to bid the programme.