Kathmandu, March 5:

If there is something to cheer about, it is the country’s rapid progress in telecommunication development and expansion over the last few years.

Due to the aggressive expansion plans of the telecom service providers, Nepal’s target for having 15 telephone connections per 100 people by 2014 is to be met seven years earlier than the set goal. In fact, it is going to be more than 20 connections per 100 people.

The state-run telecom giant, Nepal Telecom (NT) has unveiled an ambitious plan of having 20 lines per 100 people in the next three years, while the government’s long-term plan for telecom and information technology unveiled in 2002 says there will be 15 telephone connections per 100 people by 2014.

If the private operators’ figures are also added to it, teledensity could reach up to 25, almost double than the government target.

According to NT’s new expansion plan, Nepal’s teledensity will be 20 by the mid-2009, which alone beats the government’s target set for 2014.

The GSM cellular mobile phone and wireless telephone based in CDMA (code digital multiple access) technology are being attributed to for bringing a revolution in the telecommunication sector of the country.

Nepal’s teledensity, which was less than one per 100 people two years ago, has already crossed six at the end of 2006, thanks to the ever-growing popularity of pre-paid mobile phones and CDMA wireless phone.

“If we could meet the current demand, the target would be met even before 2009. The infrastructure development and operational costs have heavily come down in recent years with the advent of the new technology of CDMA,” say the officials at NT.

New technologies such as wireless CDMA and V-SAT have made providing telephone connectivity to remote and rural areas easier, where taking conventional PSTN telephone lines have been technically unrealistic.

However, the growth in teledensity has been markedly urban-centric, whereas most rural areas remain deprived of basic telecom services.

“Nepal Telecom is engaged in infrastructure development for the aforesaid expansion plan,” says Surendra Prasad Thike, spokesperson at NT.

“If everything goes as per the plan, NT aims to get to 20 connections per 100 people by 2009. Within the same period, GSM cellular mobile phone services will be expanded throughout the country,” he adds.

So far, NT has distributed 1.3 million telephone connections including 500,000 PSTN telephone lines, 100,000 CDMA phones and 700,000 GSM mobile phones. It has already announced a global tender for an additional 3.5 million GSM mobile phone connections, to be distributed within the next three years.

Meanwhile, the sole private GSM mobile phone operator, Spice Nepal has stated that it has 450,000 subscribers of Mero Mobile, while another private basic telecom operator United Telecom Ltd has already started its operations outside the Kathmandu valley.