1. COUNTRY REPORT: NEPAL STATUS OF DIGITIZATION PROGRESS IN BROADCASTING
Deepak Mani Dhital
Acting General Manager
Nepal Television

2. CONTENTS Country status
Broadcasting and Telecommunication Policies in Nepal
Digitization progress in Broadcasting
Related useful websites

3. COUNTRY STATUS

4. Nepal
Located between longitude 80o4' & 88o12' and between latitude 26o22' & 30o27'. Nepal borders with the Tibet Autonomous Region of the People's Republic of China in the North and India in the East, South and West respectively. Nepal is land locked country.
Nepal has been a member of SAARC(South Asian Association for regional Cooperation) since 1993.
Official name: Nepal.
Population: million, around 3.5 millions in Kathmandu.
Capital: Kathmandu.
Area: 1,47,181 sq. km.
Religion: 90 % Hindu
Government type: Democratic
Democracy day: Falgun 7 (Feb)
Official Language: Nepali

7. Lumbini
Mount Everest
Office of Prime Minister
Parliament
Pashupatinath
Bouddha Nath

8. Data Service over Mountains

9. ECONOMY
Nepal is among the lowest in Per-Capita GDP terms and least developed countries with almost one-third of its general population living under the poverty line.
Nepal has considerable scope for exploiting its potential in hydropower and tourism.
Natural Resources: quartz, timber, hydropower, tourism beauty, small deposits of lignite, copper, cobalt, iron
Currency: Neplese Rupees 1USD = NRS
GDP Growth (Constant Prices, National Currency) %
GDP (Current Prices, US Dollars) US$ Billion
GDP Deflator (Index, Base Year as per country's accounts = 100)
GDP Per Capita (Current Prices, US Dollars) US$

10. Contd… GDP (PPP), US Dollars US$ 33.643 Billion
GDP Share of World Total (PPP) %DP Per Capita (PPP), US Dollars US$ 1,205.27
Implied PPP Conversion Rate
Inflation, Average Consumer Prices (Indexed to Year 2000) (Index, Base Year 2000 = 100)
Inflation (Average Consumer Price Change %) %
Inflation, End of Year (Indexed to Year 2000) (Index, Base Year 2000 = 100)
Inflation (End of Year Change %
Current Account Balance (US Dollars) US$ Billion
Current Account Balance (% GDP) %

11. ICT Profile Fixed Line: 826,571(PSTN 581,699,WLL 244,372)
Mobile: 6,828,468 (GSM 6,150,305,CDMA ,163
Limited Mobility: 332,808
GMPCS: 1,742
WCDMA,3G: 1,925
Total : 7,991,014
SOURCE: NTA,April 2010.

12. Peneration rate: Fixed Line: 2.95% Mobile: 24.35% Others: 1.20%
Total Penetration rate: %

13. Data Internet Services
Dialup (PSTN+ISDN)
Wireless, Optical Fiber
Cable Internet
ADSL
GPRS
CDMA 1X
Total

14. Rural PCO 1,989
No. of Unserved Village Development Committee (VDC)
No. of Served Village Development Committee (VDC) 3,680

15. 2011 ICT STATUS Millions of dollars were invested in Telecomm.
40% of households have telephony service, fixed and/or mobile service.
5 % of households have Internet service. Standard speed is 128 Kbps, cost it from USD 10 to 15 monthly.
8 % of households have at least one computer.
There are 235 VDC, still there are not telecom services.
*/ Figures in nominal US dollars.

16. BROADCASTING AND TELECOMMUNICATIONS POLICIES IN NEPAL

17. Nepal Telecommunication Authority is responsible for making policies for telecommunication.
Ministry of Information and Communication is acting as the Broadcasting authority.
Digital switchover date has been proposed for in Nepal.
Some of the policies implemented by NTA are
-Universal Access to the Telecommunication Service

18. Universal Service Obligation
Development of Corporate Service
Liberalization of the Telecommunication Sector
Open Licensing Regime to be Applied
Private Sector's Participation to Be Encouraged
To enter into Information Society

19. Appropriate Information and Communication Technology for the Users of Rural
areas
Persons Who Have Engaged in the Development Activities Shall Be Caused to Use Information and Communication Technology Fully
Commercialization of the Nepal Telecommunication Corporation

20. Institutional Development of Implementation of Policy
Economic Efficiency of the Telecommunication Sector

21. Digitization progress in Broadcasting

22. It has been proposed to adopt DVB-T for digital terrestrial transmission, DVB-C for digital cable and DVB-S for satellite transmission.

23. Cable TV There is around 400 cable TV provider in the country.
Major Cable TV provider of the country has already started digital cable as a test transmission.
Their target is to switchover completely within 2 years 23

24. Radio
There is around 200 FM Radio stations and only national AM radio in the country.
Radio Nepal has regional radio transmission throughout the country.
Radio has been proposed to switchover to DAB and they are working on it. 24

25. Televisions
There are around 15 satellite channels,2 regional terrestrial channels in the country.
National television channel, Nepal Television has terrestrial transmission through VHF band covering 72% of the people and 50% of the land, Second channel of Nepal television (NTV Plus) is also expanding its terrestrial coverage.
Some Private channels also has terrestrial transmission through UHF band but they are limited to certain region 25

27. ITU is assisting Nepal for switchover from analog to digital terrestrial transmission.
Experts team from ITU is visiting Nepal in near future
It has been proposed to start digital terrestrial transmission from phulchowki by the end of 2011as a test transmission.
This will cover Kathmandu valley and surroundings which will be around 20% of the population .

28. It has been planned to switchover all analog transmission in the phased manner by the end of December 2015

29. Television Channels in Nepal are going to change analog workflow to digital tapeless workflow in the phased manner.
Private channels of the country has already started semi tapeless workflow environment
Nepal Television has planned to acquire complete tapeless workflow within 3 years
Nepal television will implement ingest system, storage system and playout system by the end of this year 2011.

30. Media Asset Management, digital achieves, Automation, Server based editing system will be implemented next year 2012.
NRCS and complete tapeless workflow will be implemented by the end of 2013, Camcorders will be updated to storage card based recording system.

31. RELATED USEFUL WEBSITES

32. RELATED USEFUL WEBSITES
Ministry of Information Communications
National Information technology Center:
High Level Committee for information technology
hlcit.gov.np
Nepal Telecommunication Authrity:
Broadcasting and Telecommunication Companies:

33. Thank You