NT has currently started work on 10 major highways, working on the east -west routes along the country. "We are planning to make cell phone services available along every section of these roads by the end of 2010, provided there are reductions in the number of general strikes and chakka jams (transport strikes,” said Rabindra Jha, a senior official of the NT, in his conversations with myrepublica.com.
Among all these highways, work on the 200 km Prithivi Highway, a road that links Kathmandu and Pokhara, and the 36 km Mugling-Bharatpur highway will be completed by the end of this fiscal year. NT, however, could not provide details on the number of spots on these two highways where cell phone services do not function.
"For example, your cell phone stops working at more than 100 locations between Aanbu Khairani and Damauli. Just between these two places, these dead spots span around 50 km of the highway. And the story is the same along other highways in the country," said Jha. "That fact makes it difficult for us to give the exact number of locations that lack cell phone service."
Jha also acknowledged that it is difficult to make mobile phone services available along many parts of the highways selected by NT as a significant number of places are uninhabited. "The sparse habitation pattern increases the chances of equipment, such as base transceiver stations, getting stolen," said Jha.
NT, which offers mobile phone services based on GSM and CDM technologies, has a cell phone subscriber base of around 2.8 million. That clientele base makes up around 60 percent of the total mobile phone users in the country.
Highways that will be turned mobile-phone service friendly:
Kathmandu-Pokhara
Mugling-Bharatpur
Kathmandu-Tatopani
Itahari-Kakadbhitta
Kohalpur-Nepalgunj
Bhairahawa-Butwal
Dhangadhi-Itahariya-Mahendranagar
Pathalaiya-Dhalkebar
rupak@myrepublica.com
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