High-speed Internet in offing

High-speed Internet in offing
eKantipur, 27-Apr-08

Nepal Telecom (NT) phone subscribers are going to enjoy ADSL (asymmetric digital subscriber line), a high-speed internet access service, within two weeks.

Nepal Telecom Authority (NTA) on Friday gave the green light to NT to operate the service that allows NT customers to connect to the internet without interrupting their phone connection. For this, the subscribers have to install a device called splinter -- which costs less than US $50 in the international market -- to begin browsing the service. The NT has not fixed the rate for the splitter yet.

Once this service comes into operation, subscribers troubled by low speed of net connectivity can heave a sigh of relief.

The regulatory authority has fixed the charge for unlimited service for dial-up modems rated at 128 kilobites per second (kbps) at Rs 900 per month. And customers won’t have to pay any additional charges.

At a press conference Sunday, Kailash Neupane, spokesperson of NTA said the authority has also asked NT to allow private service internet providers to sell the service.

"Infrastructure is ready to begin the service. All we need to do now is to follow procedural matters, and let customers enjoy cheaper and better internet browsing," Sugat Ratna Kansakar, managing director of NT told the Post. "It will take anywhere between one and two weeks in the Kathmandu Valley. Outside the capital it will take two to four months."

He said NT has the capacity to distribute the new service to over 20,000 customers in the Valley in the first phase.

Tariff rates per month
Service Type Price
128 kbps Rs 900
256 kbps Rs 1,500
512 kbps Rs 2,700
1 mbps Rs 5,000
2 mbps Rs 9,300