SNPL’s services are currently available in around 45 districts of the country, including 43 percent of the country’s village development committees. “To make the services available in the district headquarters of all the districts in the country, we have already started mobilizing people and building the necessary infrastructure,” Chandi Shrestha, director of SNPL told myrepublica.com. “We have also started acquiring land to install the base transceiver stations (BTSs).”
Spice Nepal is planning to install around 500 BTSs outside the capital. “Around 125 BTSs will also be installed in the Kathmandu Valley to enhance the quality of service,” Shrestha said, declining to give the names of the places where SNPL is planning to expand its coverage.
Established in September 2005, SNPL is the first privately run cell phone service provider in the country. It is also the country’s second largest cell phone service provider. However, since its establishment, there have been significant changes in the promoters’ portfolio. The company, which had drawn 75 percent of its investment from VISOR Holdings of Kazakhstan at the time of establishment, is now under the control of TeliaSonera--a European telecom company that has a strong presence in Nordic and Baltic countries. VISOR Holdings had sold more than half of its stake in the company to TeliaSonera for around US$434 million last year.
At a press conference organized in Kathmandu some weeks ago, Lars Nyberg, CEO and president of TeliaSonera had said: “SNPL is here for the long haul and our main priority is to become the number one mobile company in Nepal.” To reach the heights as hoped for by Nyberg, SNPL is also planning to launch aggressive marketing plans to increase its customer base. SNPL currently has 1.7 million subscribers and plans to add 1.2 million more this year.
Earlier this year, the company had also announced plans to introduce new value-added services, like mobile banking, and improving the quality of services. “However, with the changing of the company’s CEO, we have put those plans in the backburner,” Shrestha said. The former CEO of SNPL, Dilip Singh, was recently replaced by Pasy Kaistenin.
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