Bob Zhu, Huawei's director of strategic initiatives for South East Asia, handed over the document of donated equipment to Minister for Information and Communications Minendra Rijal.The Chinese vendor has donated equipment like eLTE deployment broadband trunking products, portable LTE communication systems and outdoor Customer Premises Equipments (CPE), among others, as part of its earthquake relief program.
Speaking on the occasion, Zhu said that Huawei hopes that the donation will bring some solace and a certain level of relief to the people in affected areas. "We have donated these rapid communication systems to ensure that people in Nepal communicate with each other at the time of disasters," Zhu said.
Zhu also said that Huawei has been helping to restore damaged telecommunications network of their clients in Nepal.
Rijal said MoIC will hand over the equipment to Nepal Telecom (NT). "NT will be using the equipments to make communications easier in affected areas where telecommunications network in not working," said Rijal. He also said the government was soon planning to implement infrastructure sharing regulation for telecommunication operators so that their cost of operation can be shared.
Minister Rijal also urged Huawei to play a role of reliable supplier at the time of crisis. Saying that many BTS needs to be upgraded and some needs to be removed from the damaged houses, Rijal said that it is an opportunity for Huawei to show their performance.
After the earthquake, many house owners have been asking the operators to remove the BTS installed on their rooftops.
However, Nepal Telecommunications Authority (NTA) has said only the BTS on the roof of vulnerable homes will be removed.
Yu Shaoning, director of Huawei Nepal's public relations department, said that the devices can be installed in just 15 minutes. "These devises are easy to use. Around 100 people can use make call, send SMS and do video conferencing through one system at a time. These device work in a range of 6 km," added Shaoning.
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