Performance of Rural Telecom Service in Nepal

NDCL:
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

of 2 Mbps microwave links, MARTS, single channel VHF/UHF or Very Small Aperture Terminal (VSAT) services. The following table summarizes the types of technology used to provide  telecommunications  services  to  the  VDCs  of  Nepal  as  of  12  April,  2008  (30
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:


 
STM has now installed a total of 2638 PCOs in 636 VDCs of Nepal as of 12