Rural service was expanded in Nepal under the Fifth Phase Telecom Project, through Japanese (JICA) and IDA (World Bank) fund. Country’s 75 district centres have automatic telecommunications service, including STD and ISD. This access is usually provided by NDCL or a privately operated public call office (PCO) or a phone shop. Sixty- eight district centers have communications services to some neighbouring VDCs by means
Chaitra, 2064).
Technology used by NDCL to serve VDCs | |
Digital C-DOT (wire line) exchanges | 21/3,676 (Exchange/Capacity) |
MARTS | 158/1,086 (Marts Terminals/ Telephone Subscribers) |
VHF/UHF radio | 484 (Telephone Subscribers) |
Digital microwave (JICA project) | 4/56 (Rural Station/Subscriber) |
HF radio | 4 |
VSAT | 449/714 (Terminals/Telephone lines) |
VDCs served with at least one PCO | 2990 |
Telex Service | 256/70 (Capacity/Distribution) |
STM has now installed a total of 2638 PCOs in 636 VDCs of Nepal as of 12
April, 2008 through 871 VSAT terminals.
NDCL and STM have achieved the following rural service penetration levels as of 12 January, 2008 (30 Chaitra, 2064). Percentages identified in the table refer to the percentage of VDCs with at least one PCO in the specified region.
Region |
Total VDCs |
VDCs Served with at least one PCO | |
By STM* | By NDCL* | ||
Nepal | 3,915 |
636 |
2990 |
Eastern Development Region | 893 |
532 |
|
Central Development Region | 1199 |
4 |
|
Western Development Region | 865 |
79 |
|
Mid-Western Development Region | 575 |
21 |
|
Far-Western Development Region | 383 |
– |
* – some of the VDCs are overlapped
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