Technicians at the maintenance division of NT’s Bhairahawa office told Republica that the new set has even more problems. “I bought the new set because the older one was not working. But the new one seems to be even worse,” said Sarashwoti Kafle of Rupandehi. [break]
NT’s Bhairahawa office is receiving complains on the new sets from its subscribers almost every day. Many subscribers say they feel they are being cheated by the state-owned telecom operator.
Nepal Telecom started exchanging sets about two months ago. It has already exchanged 400 sets distributed in Nawalparasi, Rupandehi and Kapilvastu.
A technician of NT’s Bhairahawa office informed that the battery used in new sets is of inferior quality. “Quality of other parts is worse than the ones used in old sets,” he added.
The older sets were manufactured by China’s Hantel Company. After NT started received complains about the sets, it severed contract with the company and started distributing sets manufactured by another Chinese company - Lintop. NT has imported a total of 60,000 sets manufactured by Lintop. It has sent 11,000 sets for sale in Lumbini zone.
“The advantage of new sets over the older one is that the spare parts of new sets are available in the market. We are planning to open a maintenance counter at Butwal for the phones,” said Surendra Prasad Shrestha, chief engineer of CDMA department, Nepal Telecom.
Customers need to pay Rs 1,500 to exchange older sets with new ones.
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