Nepal plans nationwide Net service within two years

The Nepal government plans to link the entire nation with broadband Internet service within two years. The government in the budget for the current fiscal year has stated that all the district headquarters, municipalities and rural municipalities will be connected by optical fibre laid down beside the national highways and roads connecting district headquarters within two years. “Broadband Internet service will be expanded to ward-level. Telecommunication service providers will be encouraged to get merged in order to make the telecommunication service more systematic and competitive,” the then finance minister stated in the budget.The finance ministry has allocated Rs4.98bn for information, communication and technology (ICT) development, a big chunk of which will be invested to connect the entire nation to broadband Internet network.According to Nepal Telecommunications Authority (NTA) chairman Digambar Jha, the government has already designated Nepal Telecom to lay optical fibre network in province 1, 2 and 3. The state run telecommunications service provider will cover area starting from Panchthar in the east to Dhading. United Telecom is responsible to initiate the process in province 4 and 5; starting from Gorkha to Rukum. After the first phase of tender call was scrapped, the NTA is currently in the process of choosing the telecom company to undertake the task in province 6 and 7. “We are developing an information highway that’ll look like a backbone and gradually evolve to fish bone,” Jha explained. This means, the NTA will develop information highway starting from Chiya Bhanjyang in Panchthar to Jhulaghat in Baitadi. After the completion, north-south highway will be connected with main network giving it a shape of fish bone. “We plan to connect all district headquarters and nearby municipalities with optical fibre network,” he saidJha added that the fish bone network, once connects all the major district headquarters, will form a ring of optical fibre network through which Internet network can be established in every nook and corner of the country. Given optical fibre network will ensure high speed connectivity, people living even in the remote areas can access voice, video and data service through this network cutting off sole dependency on satellite based network. “Places which do not have telecom tower will be provided with microwave link based network,” Jha said.  The task of connecting 14 earthquake affected districts with broadband Internet too is being expedited, the NTA stated.