NT to add 2.91m phone lines this year

Nepal Telecom (NT) will add about 2.91 million telephone lines in the current fiscal year. NT is planning to add two million mobile phone lines, said spokesperson of the state-owned company Gun Keshari Pradahn while announcing programmes for the year. “We are upgrading GSM service across the country by installing new BTSs and expanding 3G services,” she said. The company has a customer base of 8.94 million people, mostly in GSM service. Similarly, NT is adding 886,000 CDMA telephone lines in the fiscal year 201314 and is expanding the service throughout 75 districts. This expansion will help NT to extend data services in remote places, she said. The state-owned entity is also adding 27,401 PSTN lines, popularly known as land lines. NT is also opening Customer Contact Center to address problems faced by customers. The state enterprise will also build 500 WiMAX Hotspots across the country. Such Hotspots will be established in crowded areas like major commercial hubs, colleges and bus terminals. The corporation posted an operating profit Rs 37.60 billion in the fiscal year 2012-13 and has projected to earn a profit of Rs 41.65 billion in the current fiscal year. Similarly, it has projected to post net profit of Rs 11.96 billion in the current fiscal as against Rs 10.59 billion of last fiscal.