KATHMANDU, OCT 01 -The Nepal Telecom (NT) said on Monday that its service had been interrupted on Saturday due to rats damaging the optical fibre based transmission links in its Sundhara office.
The company’s mobile network was out of service for four hours (5:50 am to 9:45 am) on Saturday morning, leaving over 1 million customers in the Kathmandu valley without GSM mobile or data service. “Our study has verified that the fibre wires were cut off by rats, causing the service in the Kathmandu valley to be disrupted,” said the NT spokesperson, Guna Keshari Pradhan.
She added that, as a precaution, the company has started test operations on a redundant transmission link so that the service remains uninterrupted, even if another route stops working.
After Saturday’s incident, the NT had used poison to get rid of the rats, according to officials. Since its offices face a problem with rats, the NT has long had been using mouse repellents; but those measures clearly did not prevent Saturday’s service disruption. After the fibres were cut, the transmission link between the NT’s Master Switching Controller (MSC) in its Babarmahal office (Telecom Training Centre) and the gateway at the Sundhara office was disrupted, according to the NT officials.
The company has also started test operations on an alternative link. Due to the damage in the links, mobile users of the NT service in Kathmandu were not able to make or receive calls or use mobile internet. With the prime minister’s office showing serious concern over the issue, the Ministry of Information and Communications has formed a three-member probe committee to investigate Saturday’s mobile service interruption.
The committee, under the coordination of former Nepal Telecom munications Authority (NTA) Chairman Suresh Kumar Pudasaini, has been assigned to carry out an investigation regarding the cause of the service failure, and produce a report within a week. The other two members of the committee include Anup Nepal, under secretary at the Ministry of Information and Communi-cations, and a joint secretary from the prime minister’s office.
“We are yet to receive conformation regarding the member from the prime minister’s office,” said Nepal. He said that they had held informal talks regarding the issues, with Pudasaini on Monday, and would launch their enquiries soon after the appointment of a third member.
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