Nepal Telecom has made a payment of Rs 189 million to renew its GSM license for another 5 years, but is disputing a demand from the regulator that it pay Rs 20 billion (US$200 million) instead.
The mobile network's license is due to expire in May, and can be renewed until 2019, but there is a dispute over how much that renewal should cost.
The mobile network wants it renewed under the terms of the existing license conditions, which imposed a renewal fee of Rs 189 million. However, the regulator wants the considerably higher fee to be paid under its new rules.
The regulator is threatening a 15 percent fine -- or Rs 2.97 billion -- on the company if it doesn't make the payment.
The dispute technically means that Nepal Telecom wont get its license renewed as it had to be signed off three months before the current license expires. That deadline passed yesterday. It can however be expected that both sides will find a way around that impasse, once they have worked out how much to charge for the license.
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