Nepal begins using Chinese Internet service
By Yuan Jirong
People's Daily app
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Kathmandu (People's Daily)-Nepal Telecom and China Telecom Global Limited (CTG) launched the Internet protocol service between Nepal and China on Friday.

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China Nepal Cable goes through Rasuwagadi (Jilong) Gateway. (Photos: Yuan Jirong/People's Daily)

Wang Yonglin, chief representative of CTG SAARC Region, said that Nepal Telecom entered into an agreement with China Telecom for the construction of China-Nepal cable in 2013. However, the construction and commercial operations of this cross-border optical fibre link was delayed due to various reasons, including an earthquake, landslide and avalanche.

At 73 milliseconds from Kathmandu to Hong Kong compared with 120-plus milliseconds through a submarine route passing India, China Nepal Cable would connect Nepal to Hong Kong with shorter latency and also act as the gateway to route Nepal traffic to Central Asia, Northeast Asia, Europe,and US along with seamless terrestrial and submarine routes with advanced SLA parameters. 

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Telecommunication engineers from China and Nepal conduct a final test.

In the past, Nepal Telecom has been operating IP services with Indian operators through its southern border. Ananta Man Singh, manager of Nepal Telecom, said “As the Internet traffic has been increasing rapidly in the country, Chinese fiber cable is taken as an alternative source to meet the ever-increasing bandwidth demand. The Chinese Internet gateway is also expected to facilitate service providers in Nepal to establish bandwidth connections with other countries through China.”

Currently, 4G services are only available in Kathmandu and Bokhram in Nepal. But China's services are expected to offer new business opportunities for the mobile Internet market. Kaminiraj Bhandari, Managing Director of Nepal Telecom, said “Nepal Telecom would benefit from an additional route for connectivity.”

Providing high-quality services to Nepal is only one part of CTG's plan. According to Deng Xiaofeng,CEO of China Telecom Global Limited, the cooperation is a win-win strategy.

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A Nepal Telecom engineer tests equipment in Nepal border in Rasuwagadi (Jilong) Gateway.

Yu Hong, Chinse Ambassador to Nepal, said that the commercial operations of the China-Nepal fiber link marks the expansion of economic cooperation between the two countries. Moreover, it will be significant for the construction of the interconnection between the two sides. This is another big step towards the Belt and Road initiative.