The Bhutanese Leading the way.
Member of Parliament (MP) Dorji Wangmo of Kengkhar Weringla raised concerns over the delay in the implementation of the government’s pledge to reduce mobile data charges by 50 percent. She questioned the Minister of the Ministry of Industry, Commerce and Employment (MoICE) on the status of the pledge after the Cabinet had announced in March 2025 that the revised rates would take effect by 1stJuly 2025 which still remains unimplemented.
MP Dorji Wangmo asked what the current status of the government’s pledge to reduce mobile data charges by 50 percent is, and what has caused the delay in meeting the announced 1st July 2025 implementation timeline. She also asked what measures the government has put in place to ensure that service quality, network capacity, and the financial sustainability of telecom operators are not compromised once the revised tariffs are implemented.
In response, Lyonpo Namgyal Dorji said that the government has been in constant talks and consultations with Bhutan InfoComm and Media Authority (BICMA) and GovTech Agency, and is still trying to reduce the data charges by 50 percent. He said that Bhutan Telecom had stated that for data packages such as 19 and 49 they would be able to reduce the data charges by 50 percent, but for packages exceeding these such as 99, 199, 299 and so on, they would be able to reduce the data charges by 30 to 40 percent and provide free talk time and SMS to avoid traffic congestion and other issues. However, the government had to decline this proposal.
While the government was very grateful to Bhutan Telecom for coming up with this solution, Lyonpo Namgyal Dorji said the proposal had to be declined since the pledge was to reduce data charges by 50 percent, and the government wanted to stand by this pledge.
He further said that during the months of August and September, BICMA conducted research on orders from the government and found that the 50 percent data reduction would not affect Bhutan Telecom as much as it had originally anticipated.
Lyonpo Namgyal Dorji also said that the government is still trying and has been in talks with Indian companies such as Airtel since last year for alternatives.
