Nepal Telecom, the government-owned telecom company organized a press meet and interaction with media on Baishak 5, 2076. Addressing the program, Nepal Telecom MD Mr. Dilli Adhikari mentions of the company being service oriented rather than just making a profit. Nepal Telecom also informed media persons of their current progress/works in 4G/LTE expansion project, Mid Hill Optical fiber project, FTTH service expansion project, and mobile network quality improvement.
Nepal Telecom being a government company is always under the scrutiny of the public, their representatives, Ministries, and Government. Managing Director Dilli Adhikari has expressed that the company has always been responsible for the public and follow the obligations. According to him, Nepal Telecom is not just doing their business part but also focused to provide service to all people in every corner of the country. He emphasized that Nepal Telecom provides telecom service to rural areas from where the outcome or revenue may not be high.
He assured that the company will play a significant role in making people’s lives better by enhancing education and health service through connectivity. For which, they are planning to provide the 4G/LTE service nationwide within a short period of time. Read about 2G, 3G, 4G, 5G technologies explained in simple terms.
How many local bodies have Nepal Telecom service?
In reply to the question, MD answers that Nepal Telecom has a presence in all of the 753 local bodies with any sort of technology/services. He said that they are currently doing a survey to find out more details about the presence of internet service in those local bodies.
Several senior ranking officials of Nepal Telecom including Chief Technical officer Mr. Matukananda Vaidhya, Chief Financial Officer Mr. Surya Bhakta Pokharel, Chief Human Resource Officer Mr. Raju Babu Aryal were also present in the program.
Meanwhile, Nepal Telecom’s Spokesperson Mrs. Pratibha Vaidhya presented the current progress in several projects and future works.
4G LTE Project
Nepal Telecom has already made three contracts for the expansion of 4G LTE service in all 7 provinces of Nepal on Magh 20, 2075. The three projects are:
- Core Network Project ( with ZTE Corporation, China)
- Network I RAN Project (with CCSI, Hong Kong): Central development region and Midwestern region.
- Network II RAN Project (with CCSI, Hong Kong): Eastern region, Western region and Far-western region.
The capacity of the 4G LTE project is 6.5 million lines which include small cells, VoLTE, VoWifi, and latest/advanced technologies like Carrier Aggregation. Nepal Telecom first launched 4G LTE in Nepal from Kathmandu and Pokhara on Jan 1, 2017.
They say they are committed to bringing 4G service to all parts of the country within a year of the contract. That means they have 10 more months for the 4G expansion to complete.
Mobile Network Expansion
Nepal Telecom expanded its 3G network in 400 new areas. The number of new Base stations in the whole of Nepal is 407. They have been running 10 Million projects from some time, which has two separate projects. They have completed all of the works in Package B project. 95% work in Package A has been completed which will also close in this Fiscal Year.
Mobile network quality improvement
Nepal Telecom says they have improved their mobile network quality with their recent works like link optimization, battery/rectifier addition, additional sites, Drive test & optimization. They claim their data service to be excellent from the drive test survey done by Nepal Telecommunication Authority (NTA) on Poush and Magh 2075.
Previously, NTA study also found Nepal Telecom mobile network’s voice quality to be the best among the telecom companies in Nepal.
Mid Hill optical Fiber Project
NTA has provided the optical fiber project in the Mid Hill section of Province 1, 2 and 3 to Nepal Telecom. They say they have already made 4 different contracts out of the 5 for the Fiber project. They are:
- Province 1: 596 km optical fiber: contract with LS cables, Korea
- Province 2: 1028 km optical fiber: contract with JV of Arogya Construction and China Railway
- Optica Fiber in Province 3: 555 km: contract with CCSI Hong Kong.
- DWDM equipment: Contract with CCSI Hong Kong
- Router Equipment: To be done soon.
FTTH (Fiber to the home) Project
The company has planned to migrate its ADSL subscribers to FTTH. For which, they are expanding their fiber network nationwide. They will also provide IPTV along with the high-speed internet over the fiber. Recently they expanded their FTTH service in the Janakpur area. Till now, the total capacity of FTTH lines in the whole of Nepal is 40,960 lines only available in specific areas. They also told the media that they are continuously expanding their FTTH network to make it available to all parts of the country.
Tell us what do you think of Nepal Telecom projects and MD words on their priority to serve people? Please comment your feedback below.