NEPAL: Pre-paid mobile phones resume partially

Nepal Telecom begins the process of restoring all pre-paid mobile phone lines

Nepal News
Tuesday, August 23, 2005

AsiaMedia Editor's Note: Reports are unclear as to whether the lifting of the state of emergency on April 30 allows for press freedom, and thus Nepalnews may still be operating under the directives of King Gyanendra.

Following over a six-month long disruption, Nepal Telecom (NT) partially resumed the pre-paid mobile phone lines Monday night, officials said.

"About 12,000 lines were operated by midnight Monday," Sugat Ratna Kansakar, Managing Director of the NT, told Nepalnews Tuesday morning.

According to Kansakar, the NT will open about 10,000 lines daily. "It may take around 10 days for resumption of all re-registered mobile lines," he said.

Among the 173,000 pre-paid mobile lines distributed by NT, about 110,000 people have re-registered their lines after the NT called for re-registration, reports said.

Mobile services were suspended in Nepal soon after the royal takeover in February 1. The post-paid services had resumed from May 02.

Date Posted: 8/23/2005