KATHMANDU: Telecom service providers are moving on with service improvements and additional services. Nepal Telecom (NT) has come up with a new recharge card that costs only Rs 100 and Rs 200 in the market without any additional charge on the purchase of the cards.

“There were a number of complaints regarding additional charge of Rs 5 on recharge card of Rs 100 and Rs 200. Therefore, we have two different colour recharge cards with no additional charge,” said NT spokesperson Surendra Prasad Thike adding that the old stock of recharge cards is still in the market which will have talk value as mentioned in the card while the new recharge cards will have less talk value as there will be some charges for tax and services.

On February 26, NT started distribution of NT Evolution Data Optimized (EVDO) from Patan, Gongabu, Naxal and Pokhara. EVDO, also known as CDMA2000 1xEvDO, is a telecommunications standard for wireless transmission of data through radio signals, typically for broadband Internet access. It is a third generation (3G) system evolved from CDMA IS-95 and optimized for packet data services to achieve high speed, high capacity and excellent portability. It lets users ou move seamlessly from cell to cell, creating a true mobile wireless broadband internet experience at any time or place, including real-time video streaming, large volume data downloads and web browsing.

Mero Mobile has introduced its “SIM SIM”. In it, one can buy two Mero Mobile SIM cards for the price of one at Rs 350. Each SIM card in the bundle will have Rs 175 in balance, of which Rs 50 will go to the main account and Rs 125 to the bonus account.

Meanwhile with a total of about 3.90 lakh customers, United Telecom Ltd (UTL) is providing a congestion free network to its customers. According to UTL general manager Madan Singh, compared to last year UTL has a growth of 200 per cent in customers. Last year, the total UTL number of UTL customers was 1.6 lakh. “We want overall growth of telecom service and benefit for all along with quality service,” said Singh. UTL in October 2008 installed EVDO but still it’s not operational, he informed adding that UTL lacks enough frequency.