Millions of customers were affected when Nepal Telecom's 4G and Volta services were disrupted for about four hours on Monday afternoon. Telecom customers all over the country were inconvenienced when there was a problem in the internet service. Telecom informed that the problem was solved only after 5:30 pm.

Telecom's core network system and the interface between the billing system and the problem related to the 'configuration', the company has said that the 4G and Volti services have been interrupted. 

Some customers complained that the balance was over or the mobile settings were corrupted when the data was not running. Nirjala Thapa of Budhanilkanth said that she did a new recharge without using the data. "I took the monthly pack only two weeks ago, I did a new recharge to see how quickly it was over, but the balance is not over," she said. As there is no internet at home, I had to do Zoom meetings using data, and I could not sit in the meeting as the data was not working.' 

In Telecom, the service has been disrupted many times before due to problems in the core network and billing system. The telecom's core network system is built by the Chinese company, Huawei. 

An official of Telecom said that as the responsibility of its operation (operation) and maintenance has been given to the vendor, the engineers and technicians of Telecom cannot solve it by themselves.

Telecom's employee union leaders have responded that the repeated problems in the system are suspicious. They have responded that the telecom's systems are under vendor control as the root cause of the problem. They say that telecom engineers do not have full access to the system, and since all maintenance and operations are the responsibility of the vendor, it is difficult to find and solve the problem. According to the latest data, the number of 4G subscribers of Nepal Telecom is 1 crore 38 lakh 95 thousand 222. 

"We have gold medalist engineers but they don't get the opportunity to work," said Suresh Prasad Rauniyar, president of Nepal Telecom Workers Union, "Nepal Telecom is dependent on the vendor in the core system. All systems are from Chinese companies. When its core system is used by a private telecommunication service provider, there is no problem there, but why is there a problem in Nepal Telecom?' According to Ravindra Manandhar, the spokesperson of

Telecom, on Monday, the 4G and Volti services were disrupted when there was a problem related to 'configuration' in the interface between the core system and the billing system. According to him, 2G and 3G services were in operation. "The problem is not always the same, sometimes there is a problem with the core system, sometimes with the billing, sometimes with what, this is not unusual in the technology sector," he said, "both our technicians and vendors solve the problem together." We are not completely dependent on the vendor, that is a rumour.

Regulator Nepal Telecommunication Authority has also informed that it has taken this incident seriously. Director Meen Prasad Aryal, who is also the spokesperson of the authority, said that quality standards have been set with the aim of not inconveniencing customers. "Repeated interruption of service is due to negligence, weakness or technical error, we study and take action," he said. The quality standards to be maintained by the service provider have been specified in the Telecommunication Service Quality Regulations, 2079.' 

This kind of service disruption, which is frequently seen in the government-owned telecommunications company, has not only disturbed the customers, but also raised serious questions about the digital structure of the country. Earlier, the Abuse of Authority Investigation Commission had filed a case against 18 people, including the then managing director of Telecom, Sangeeta Pahadi Aryal, in a special court, alleging that there was corruption during the upgrading of Telecom's billing system.