Kathmandu – Huawei’s plan to take full control of Nepal Telecom’s entire system has suffered a major setback.

With the backing of CPN-UML Chair and then-Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli, Huawei had gained a monopoly over state-owned Nepal Telecom. Over the past decade, the company’s dominance created a 'vendor lock-in,' meaning Nepal Telecom’s crucial technologies were controlled by a single firm- leading to poor service quality and heavy losses.

Telecom services rely on three key systems: the Line Access Network (core system, power, and transmission), the Radio Access Network, and billing. Huawei already dominates the first two and was poised to take over billing as well.

If not for the two-day GenZ protests that toppled the Oli-led government, the billing tender would have gone to Huawei today. The financial proposal was scheduled to be opened to award the contract.

However, after the interim government was formed and Jagadish Kharel became Minister for Communications and Information Technology, the process was halted at his initiative.
 
Nepal Telecom has since announced that the proposal has been postponed until further notice due to the changed circumstances.

The ministry concluded that further study was needed on the tender. Although Secretary Radhika Aryal initially resisted when Minister Kharel raised concerns, she eventually dropped her insistence on awarding the contract immediately.

Huawei’s dominance over Nepal Telecom, backed by Oli, has led to vendor lock-in, service quality issues, and increased business risks- raising concerns among experts.

Bizinessnews has been reporting on the issue from the beginning:

How KP Oli’s association helped Huawei gain monopoly over Nepal Telecom

Nepal Telecom billing tender designed for Huawei, Conflict of interest with another Chinese firm Whale Cloud expose

Nepal Telecom tender approved ‘End-of-Life’ software to award billing contract to Huawei

Nepal Telecom pushes Huawei billing deal despite expert, regulator, and court objections