By A Staff Reporter
Kathmandu, Feb.6: Nepal Telecom, also known as NTC, celebrated its 18th anniversary on Saturday amid a function presided over by Dr. Baikuntha Aryal, secretary at the Ministry of Communication and Information Technology and chairman of the Telecom’s board of directors.

On the occasion, Minister for Communication and Information Technology Gyanendra Bahadur Karki asked the state-owned telecommunication provider to implement the 4G long-term evolution (LTE) technology project at the earliest. He also directed it to complete the construction of information highway by laying the optical fibres along the Mid-Hill Highway within the stipulated deadline.
Minister Karki also asked the company to establish a competitive presence in the market. “NTC has attractive services but the customers do not adequately know about them,” he said, asking the Telecom to pay attention to promotion and advertising.

He also thanked the company for disseminating accurate information and continuously carrying out social responsibility activities during the COVID-19 pandemic and other natural disasters.
Secretary Aryal reminded NTC that merely increasing the number of users was not enough and that it needed to focus on increasing the number of active users and the total revenue earned.

Chairman of Nepal Telecommunications Authority Purushottam Khanal said that the first responsibility of Nepal Telecom was to provide quality services as per the desire of the customers.
To mark its anniversary, NTC announced that it would provide several of its services free of cost to 14 orphanages and old-age homes, provide sports materials and free data to at least one public and one community school in each province and sponsor a year’s food for the animals of Central Zoo, Lalitpur.