Kathmandu (Rashtriya Samachar Samiti): Five companies have been shortlisted for the study required to have Nepal’s own satellite. The Nepal Telecommunications Authority (NTA) has selected five companies after nine companies submitted letters of interest to study the satellite.
NTA has called for a new proposal to regulate and establish security, trade and operation structure and policy of satellite installation by canceling the old proposal last December.
NTA spokesperson Min Prasad Aryal informed that five companies have been selected from the companies that have submitted letters of intent as per the demand of NTA. The selected companies include Euro Consult of France, S3Tel Inc. of Dubai, Space Partnership International of the United States, Economics Limited of the United Kingdom and KPMG Asuncity and Consulting Services of India, he said.
According to him, technical and financial proposals will be sought from the selected companies in the first phase. After studying the proposal received from them, NtA will assign the basic work related to the establishment of ground satellite. He informed that another company will be selected for the installation of the satellite after the company to be selected in the first phase makes all the necessary preparations.
The policy related to the satellite was made public last June saying that it will launch its own satellite by 2022. Earlier, 22 companies from 12 countries had expressed interest in having a satellite in the letter of intent called by NTA to keep Nepal’s own satellite.