NEPAL ENDS INDIA’S MONOPOLY ON NET ACCESS

Nepal ended India’s monopoly on internet access on Friday by opening a new optical fibre link across the Himalayan mountains to China. Till Friday, landlocked Nepal was totally dependent on India for access to the worldwide web.

KATHMANDU: Nepal ended India’s monopoly on internet access on Friday by opening a new optical fibre link across the Himalayan mountains to China.

Nepal’s information and communication minister Mohan Bahadur Basnet and Chinese ambassador Yu Hong inaugurated the link during a ceremony in Kathmandu, reflecting China’s growing engagement in a region seen as India’s backyard.

Till Friday, landlocked Nepal was totally dependent on India for access to the worldwide web through connections at Biratnagar, Bhairahawa and Birgunj, for which it pays a substantial sum as fees and royalties. Besides state-run Indian firms, Nepal has been acquiring bandwidth from private players such as Tata and Airtel and BSNL

Nepal Telecom (NT), the government-owned telecom service provider, has acquired bandwidth from China Telecom Global Limited, with its head office in Hong Kong. NT signed an agreement with the Chinese company in December 2016 to acquire bandwidth. The Chinese optical fibre link enters Nepal at Rasuwa, 175km north of capital Kathmandu. A successful test of the link was conducted last week before it became operational.