The state-owned Nepal Telecom (NT) has unveiled its plan to inject Rs 22 billion in the ongoing fiscal year 2018-19 to enhance its telecom services and infrastructure. Moreover, NT has set a target to book Rs 44.25 billion profit in the ongoing fiscal and increase net profit by 10 percentage points.
Releasing its yearly plan today, NT said that priority will be given to development of NT’s infrastructure, wireless service, wire-line service, data and voice services and construction of base transceiver station (BTS) towers.
NT has set a target to increase its voice service subscriber base by 2.7 million in 2018-19 and raise the company’s data penetration to 45 per cent. Currently, it has 19.7 million voice service subscribers.
Under the infrastructure development plan, NT has said it will expedite the optical fibre laying process in Provinces 1, 2 and 3 this year. Similarly, it plans to lay optical fibre along the Kathmandu-Tarai fast track in coordination with Nepal Army.
Similarly, the telecom firm plans to distribute 59,830 postpaid and 25,050 prepaid mobile lines under its GSM network in this fiscal. Citing that necessary tender notices have been published to expand the 4G service across the country, NT has said that it will launch its 4G service across major cities of every province within this fiscal. It has also set a goal to distribute 81,602 additional CDMA telephone lines and 42,261 PSTN (landline) phones across the country this year.
In a bid to increase the quality of its services, NT has said it will operate an additional 120 BTS towers within this fiscal.
In the context of increasing demand for data service, NT has expressed its plan to give top priority to expand the company’s data service through 4G. To address the demand for high-speed internet in city areas, NT has also planned to expand its fibre-to-the-home (FTTH) service aggressively. Within the ongoing fiscal, NT has also committed to launch the company’s wi-fi service in every district headquarter, trading hubs, and public places including public schools and hospitals.
NT has also said that priority will be given to increase the quality and competitiveness of NT’s services. By strengthening its grievances hearing mechanism, NT has vowed to effectively address service-related complaints of general people.
Prativa Baidhya, spokesperson for NT, said that a few of these concerned plans and programmes have already begun. “NT’s entire focus will be to make its services competitive and increase people’s access to telecommunication services.”
Source: https://thehimalayantimes.com/business/nt-to-inject-rs-22-billion-for-infrastructure-development/
