Kathmandu, December 2:

Nepal Telecom (NT) has started providing higher bandwidth — up to two mega byte per second (mbps) — Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line (ADSL) service.

“NT has just started to provide higher bandwidth ADSL service,” said Surendra Thike, spokesman at the NT.

However, the service is, at present, only provided to corporate houses, educational institutions, diplomatic missions and government offices, as they need high speed facility. For the personal use 128 and 256 Kilo byte per second (kbps) is enough, thinks NT that is in aggressive expansion mood.

NT is increasing its mobile service to two million in soon, according to Thike. Similarly, it is also adding 50,000 more PSTN landline services within this fiscal year, he added. The total number of landline service at present is about 5,40,000. NT has been providing a number of services like landline service, mobile and Internet services but when it comes to quality customers are not a satisfied lot.

“In terms of quality NT landline service and ADSL are the best, though improvement

in quality is a continuous process. NT has its own internal monitoring mechanism to

keep an eye on the average fault in the services,” the spokesperson said adding that the mechanism continuously works on improving the quality.

NT also has special indicators that automatically tracks the number of problems that makes it easier to solve the technical problem.

However, frequent cable line theft has created problem for NT, according to Thike. “This is the major problem we have been facing regularly. But now to short out the problem NT is going to take the help from administration team.” NT is planning to use sirens so that it can reduce the cable theft. According to him, cable theft is a key hurdle in expansion and providing of quality landline service.

“If a customer faces problem of cross call,” he suggested to call the Toll free number 198 that will help solve the cross call problems. “NT can detect fault, if customer cooperates,” he said adding that landlines are like a part of our household.

Despite the growing mobile craze, landline is still a first choice for household. NT has also reduced deposit for a landline to Rs 3,000 from the earlier Rs 5,000. The NT has said that Rs 2,000 will be adjusted in the bills of customers.