KATHMANDU, July 17: Nepal Telecom (NT) has started configuring equipment at its Sundhara office to launch its new service Fiber to the Home (FTTH).
With FTTH, NT will be able to offer customers voice, high speed data and television service through a single cable.
Guna Keshari Pradhan, spokesperson for NT said, NT will offer only high speed Internet and voice telephony in the first phase. “We do not have authority to start our own cable service. We will have to enter into a tie-up with cable service providers before starting the service,” said Pradhan.
According to NT officials, necessary equipment have already been installed at Sundhara office. “Our technicians have been busy in configuration works for the past week,” she said.
The pilot project for FTTH has already been started in Durbar Marg, Kamaladi and Thamel. After the pilot project becomes successful, NT will provide the service to apartments and housing in the second phase so that people do not have to use separate telephone lines for Internet service.
“For home users, we will install FTTH service as per the demand,” said Pradhan.
As part of the FTTH project, NT will install equipment in 10 exchanges in Kathmandu, Biratnagar, Birgunj, Butwal, Pokhara and Bhadrapur. The state-owned telecom operator has already completed installation of optical fiber links to the exchanges.
Under FTTH, customers will get high speed internet service as the technology supports data transmission at the speed of 100 Mbps. Currently, Internet service providers in Nepal are providing maximum speed of 15 Mbps only.
Pradhan, however, said NT was yet to finalize the speed limit, installation charges and tariff for FTTH. “We will finalize it only after the pilot project becomes successful. However, our tariff will be affordable,” she added.
NT is replacing copper wires with fiber cables as the latter supports high bandwidth compared to copper wires.
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