NTC narrows digital divide: Minister Aryal

By A Staff Reporter,Kathmandu, Feb. 6: Minister for Home Affairs Om Prakash Aryal has praised the contribution of Nepal Telecom to reducing the digital divide and expanding communication access in rural and remote areas in the country. 

Addressing the 22nd anniversary of Nepal Telecom on Thursday, Minister Aryal emphasised that the company’s services and infrastructure have played a crucial role in strengthening the relationship between citizens and the government through good governance.

He said that Nepal Telecom should continue aligning its operations with government policies and programmes, assuring that the government’s guardianship would remain in the company’s strengthening and development efforts.

Secretary of the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology and Chairman of the Board of Directors of Nepal Telecom, Laxmi Kumari Basnet. said that Nepal Telecom has been doing important work to provide quality services to the general public by absorbing new technology and research.

She said that Nepal Telecom, as the country's major service provider, should pay attention to the development of services such as telehealth, telemedicine and tele-education by providing connectivity. 

She said that it is necessary to prepare the necessary framework so that digital services can reach even the remote areas and this will have a positive impact on the living standards of the people and accelerate the campaign to digitize the country.

She said that it is important to create the necessary framework to reach digital services, especially in remote areas, and that this will have a positive impact on the living standards of the people and accelerate the campaign to digitize the country.

Chairman of the Nepal Telecommunication Authority, Bhupendra Bhandari, suggested that Nepal Telecom, which has skilled human resources, can further expand the market by building and expanding its network accordingly and increase its income accordingly. 

He said that Nepal Telecom should work towards completing the various projects being carried out through the NTA on time.

Briefing about the overall situation of the NT, Deputy Managing Director of Nepal Telecom Rajendra Aryal said that Nepal Telecom has been successfully completing the expansion of its 4G LTE services and continuing the upgrade and distribution, and as a result, access to the service has expanded to a total of 749 local levels in 77 districts of all seven provinces. 

He said that the study of proposals received from suppliers for the launch of 5G services has been completed and is currently under review.

Aryal also shared that Nepal Telecom has been continuously expanding and upgrading its FTTH service, has been providing services to remote and extremely remote areas in line with its role as the “Nation’s Communication,” and is in the final stage of installing equipment received for data centre construction. 

A committee has been formed to review the bidding documents for the re-bidding of the new billing system and work has begun, he said. 

He informed that the bidding documents for the new bid invitation for Private Cloud Platform (NT Cloud) are under review.

On the occasion, the NT has announced a range of attractive offers and service facilities for customers from February 5 to February 11.

During this period, customers will be able to access various activation, subscription, and renewal packages at discounted rates, said the NT.

Under the offer, customers can purchase a 22-day validity package priced at Rs. 222, which includes 22 GB data and 22 minutes of talk time, along with additional benefits. 

Similarly, a one-day validity package priced at Rs. 22 with 2 GB data and 2 minutes talk time will also be available.

Another bundled offer priced at Rs. 222 provides 22 days validity, 222 minutes of all-net voice calls, 22 GB data, and 222 all-net SMS.