Telecom companies report surge in phone calls

KATHMANDU, NOV 03 -With election fever gripping the country, telecom companies are witnessing a huge surge in voice and sms services.The use of voice, SMS and data services has gone up in urban as well as rural areas, thanks to the political parties’ poll campaign that reaches fever pitch nationwide.

According to telecom operators, voice service is estimated to have increased by 15-30 percent in the last one month as compared to the same period last year. Normally, the call rate and flow of text messages see a decline soon after Dashain. But this year, it has continuously gone up.

According to Nepal Telecom (NT), there is no decline in the daily average call of its mobile service in rural areas even after Dashain. “There is a huge growth in voice service use, especially in rural areas. This is because candidates are reaching out to rural voters,” said Sangita Pahadi, deputy manager of NT’s Mobile Service Directorate. According to Pahadi, Chitwan, Kavre, Sunsari and Morang are some districts where the use of the services has gone up significantly.

NT’s CDMA service that has a comparatively wider network has also felt the poll impact. The Wireless Service Directorate of the NT has said the call rate has increased by 30 percent this season compared to the same season last year. SMS circulation by users of NT’s CDMA and IP CDMA, known as Sky Pro users, has increased by around 80 percent, according to the NT. “Service upgradation of the CDMA and schemes launched for the festivals have also taken the demand up,” said Anoop Ranjan Bhattarai, director of NT’s Wireless Service Directorate. According to NT officials, the rise in the usage has, however, hit the quality of services with network congestion reported in many areas.


The NT has been increasing the capacity in its base transceiver station (BTS) to address this problem, Pahadi said. Ncell, the private sector mobile service operator, also admitted that its daily average call and data services have increased. “We normally have growth in daily average calls during the festive season. However, this year, it has continued to grow even after Dashain,” said Milan Sharma, corporate communication expert at Ncell. He, however, did not give details of the growth in the call rate and SMS flow.

The expansion of data services (3G and GPRS) has further increased the use of internet across the country, enabling candidates to use the media like Facebook and Twitter to reach out to voters. “Digital media too have attracted political parties and this has become possible due to the increased use of data services,” said Raj Kumar Bhattarai, president of the Advertising Association of Nepal (AAN).