KATHMANDU, FEBRUARY 4

Minister for Communications and Information Technology Parbat Gurung has directed the staffers of Nepal Telecom (NT) to work in the field instead of only being limited to desk work.

Speaking at the inauguration ceremony of 17th anniversary of Nepal Telecom (NT) today, Minister Gurung expressed his dissatisfaction at the working style of NT employees.

Stating that the employees of NT should go to the field as the consumers have so many complaints with their services, Minister Gurung stressed on the need to make rules and regulations and visit the field frequently.

'In order to lead the competition, I express my commitment to always coordinate with the stakeholders for success,' he said, 'But the NT staffers have to change their working style.'

Minister Gurung also said that he felt that the NT is making progress in achieving its business goal of transforming into a company model. He further stressed on addressing the complaints regarding its services, building more towers, among others. 'It is important to commit to ensuring that these grievances have been addressed by next year.

The Nepal government is ready to assist NT's agenda.

The customer has to feel that the telecom has changed.'

Minister Gurung was of the view that a strategic management partner should be brought in as soon as possible even though there were talks of increasing investment by transforming it into a private company. 'We need to look at investment in 4G and its effectiveness,' he said. 'Let's get ready to roll out 5G this fiscal.'

He further said, 'Public participation is necessary to make this company sustainable.

What difference have we made in the policy of share structure to increase the ownership of the general public? Let's have a discussion about making the customers the owners too.'

Mentioning that people are unhappy with the projects implemented under Rural Telecommunication Development Fund as well, he urged for the concerned authorities to serious look into such grievances so that they can be addressed without any delay.

A version of this article appears in the print on February 5, 2021, of The Himalayan Times.