Nepal Telecom (NT) has announced to operate mobile phone service based on GSM technology in 24 remote areas of Nepal with the support of satellite link, an official of NT said here Saturday.

The 3-million-U.S.-dollars' project is being introduced as a part of NT's long-term program to connect all rural districts of the country with telecommunication facilities, Managing Director of NT, Sugat Ratna Kansakar, told reporters.

NT has already conducted the feasibility study and is in the process of negotiating with the party that has been selected to provide necessary equipment and satellite link, Kansakar said.

"If things go according to plan, people residing in 24 remote areas will be able to use cell phones within the first quarter of the next fiscal year (July 16, 2006 to July 15, 2007)," he said.

"Although we have not decided on the number of lines that would be distributed, we believe we will be able to meet the demand of the respective places," he added.

Ever since it started operating mobile phone service in 1999, NT, the state-owned telecom company, has succeeded in extending the service to 39 districts of the country. Despite these achievements, the company had not been able to accomplish one of its major objectives of connecting the remote parts of the country with mobile telephony, due to various reasons such as rugged terrain and insurgency related problems.

Taking all these risks into account, NT, this time had decided to connect the 24 selected places to its respective regional centers via domestic satellite trunk (DSAT) link, Kansakar said.

Till date, NT has been using terrestrial links, such as optical fibers or micro-radio links, for operation of mobile phone service.

Source: Xinhua