Nepal completes laying optical fibre at Nepal-China border

Kathmandu: Nepal Telecom (NT), the state-owned Nepalese telecommunication company, has completed laying optical fibre to Rasuwagadi area at the Nepal-China border from the capital city Kathmandu, with an eye to boosting Nepal-China connectivity.

"We completed laying optical fibre to Nepal-China border point Rasuwagadi from Kathmandu via Galchhi of Dhading district and Dhunche of Rasuwa district three days ago. This has paved the way for interconnecting service of the NT with the China Telecom," NT spokesperson Pratibha Vaidya told Xinhua news agency on Saturday.

All-Dielectric Self-Supporting (ADSS) optical fibre was laid from Kathmandu to Rasuwagadi border point, according to NT officials.

"We have already started installation of equipment for inter-connectivity with China and trial for service," she said.

The NT has planned to finish trial for direct traffic exchange among Nepal, China and India within this month.

"The completion of all the procedures about connectivity will have significant improvement in data and voice services currently being offered by the NT," she added.

Once the Nepal Telecom gets connected with the China Telecom through optical fibre, it will be directly linked to Hong Kong Data Centre which is one of the two biggest global data centres in Asia, the NT spokesperson said.

"Nepal can now establish global connectivity through Hong Kong via China, or Singapore via India. Service will become cheaper and faster from June after connecting with both the hubs in Hong Kong and Singapore. Internet sharing can also be done along with that," another official at the NT, Dilliram Adhikari, told local media.

Nepal and China had agreed to enhance connectivity during Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli`s official visit to China from March 20 to 27.