Chairman Bhandari emphasized that the management must take immediate steps to protect customer trust and brand value as the quality of the company's services is deteriorating day by day.
What you should know
Nepal Telecommunication Authority Chairman Bhupendra Bhandari has directed immediate improvement, saying that the pace of infrastructure expansion, network improvement and project implementation of Nepal Telecom is very slow. Addressing the 22nd anniversary celebration of the telecom on Thursday, Chairman Bhandari expressed dissatisfaction and concern over the telecom's 'performance'.
Chairman Bhandari also said that the work of 4G expansion and network optimization is not effective and the performance of projects under the Rural Telecommunication Development Fund is weak. ‘I have been hearing about 4G expansion for three years, it is time to phase out the technology, it has not been able to roll it out yet,’ he said, ‘We had signed an agreement with Telecom for Rs 8.42 billion for the RTDF project. Telecom’s performance in this is very disappointing. This has affected the government’s roadmap, Telecom’s performance and the digital foundation.’
He suggested that Telecom could change its business model in that direction since 51 percent of customers in Nepal are already FTTH customers. ‘It was said that the infrastructure could not be imported because the authority did not facilitate it, we opened the facilitation in the last month, but the telecom has not imported equipment for infrastructure expansion since then,’ he said, ‘The quality of service is deteriorating. During the disaster, 800/900 sites were down and the network was not available. If this is not improved immediately, the company’s brand value, customer trust, and the future of telecommunications services may be in danger in the future.’ At the
ceremony, the company’s Deputy Managing Director Rajendra Aryal presented details about the company’s revenue collection and competitive situation in the market. According to him, the telecom’s access is 53 percent. Lok Bahadur Katuwal, employee representative of the telecom board of directors, said that the company’s revenue and profits have been directly affected by technological changes and OTT services. He drew the attention of the authority by saying that mobile service providers have to pay billions in renewal fees, but internet service providers are competing unhealthyly by providing mobility services at low fees.
Chief guest of the program and Home Minister Om Prakash Aryal called Nepal Telecom the 'digital backbone' of the state and said that it has played an important role in national unity and economic activities. He suggested introducing cutting-edge technology with customer satisfaction as the center and increasing the company's competitive capacity by making full use of the company's skilled human resources.
Secretary of the Ministry of Information and Communication Technology and Chairperson of the Nepal Telecom Board of Directors, Laxmi Kumari Basnet, said that the company has made significant progress in reducing the digital divide by providing 4G services to 749 local bodies and FTTH to most cities in its 22-year journey. She emphasized that special attention should be paid to services such as telehealth, telemedicine and teleeducation in the coming days and that a digital infrastructure framework should be prepared in rural areas.
