KATHMANDU, Jan 12: Nepal is getting Internet bandwidth supply from China starting Friday.State-owned operator, Nepal Telecom, is getting bandwidth connection from China from an optical fiber line connected to Jilong gateway near Kerung.
Earlier in December last year, China Telecom Global Limited (CTG) and Nepal Telecom reached an agreement to deliver Internet Protocol services in Nepal through a newly-launched terrestrial cable route connecting China and Nepal via the Jilong gateway.
“The commercial operation of Nepal-China optical fiber link will start from Friday,” Pratibha Vaidya, the spokesperson for Nepal Telecom, told Republica. Though the process was started a year ago, works related to laying optical fiber got delayed toward Chinese side owing to disruptions caused by avalanche. The test transmission of the bandwidth, however, started in September 2017.
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As the Nepal Telecom has not said how much volume of bandwidth will be transmitted from the Chinese side through the optical fiber, it is not clear how fast the Internet will be for its users.
The trading of bandwidth with China also marks the end of Indian monopoly in the Nepali telecommunications market. Nepal has relied on Indian Internet so far. The country has optical fiber link with the southern neighbor through Bhairahawa, Birgunj and Biratnagar.
According to NT officials, once the country is connected to Internet bandwidth of the northern neighbor, users will be able to use uninterrupted Internet services even when connection with Indian side is disrupted due to any reason. The connection with China is likely to provide various alternatives for users as NT can purchase bandwidth from different Chinese companies.
According to the state-owned telecom operator, Nepali users will not face any problems in using Google and other social networks because the company is planning to purchase bandwidth from Hong Kong.
Nepal will be connected to Hong Kong via China Telecom Global (CTG).
