Kathmandu. Efforts have been made to improve the quality of service in Nepal’s telecommunication sector amidst long-standing complaints about the quality of service in Nepal.

The company has taken concrete steps to make its service effective following the directive of Minister for Communications and Information Technology, Dr. Bikram Timilsina. Specifically, a major transformation process has been undertaken, aimed at improving customer service, mobile data management, digital service expansion and administrative processes.

The Ministry of Communications and Information Technology has come up with a 10-point reform action plan to implement the ‘result-based governance management system’. In this plan, the service improvement of Nepal Telecom has also been given priority. The goal is to make customer service easy, transparent and technology-friendly. In the past, problems like service disruption, slow response, unnecessary procedural hassles and delay in resolving customer complaints were frequently surfaced. Both the ministry and the company are working in coordination to address these problems.

Nepal Telecom users have been complaining for a long time about the problem of money being automatically deducted from the main balance after the data package expires. Now this system has been abolished. Instead, customers will get a more transparent and self-selecting service. Now, customers will be given prior information after consuming 90 percent of the data package. Which gives timely information about how much data is left. Along with this, the option of using the internet without a pay-as-you-go (PAYG) or data package and deducting money has been provided. Which allows the customer to use the internet as per the need without a package. Customers will also be able to decide whether to buy a new package or directly switch to PAYG mode.

Nepal Telecom’s spokesperson, Rabindra Manandhar, said that the system is currently in trial phase and will be fully implemented within a few days. This facility will be effective in three to five days for the users purchasing data pack from USSD and within 7 to 10 days for the customers using Nepal Telecom’s mobile app. It is believed that this will provide a more comfortable experience to the customers using the service through digital medium.

Minister for Information and Communications Timilsina has also instructed Nepal Telecom to implement ‘One Time KYC’ system to make the customer service process of Nepal Telecom simple and effective. This will eliminate the hassle of submitting the same details again in future once the customer submits his/her details. Now there was the problem of submitting documents again and again while going to get SIM card, renewal or other services. Which was troubling the customer. It is expected that the service acquisition process will be faster, simpler and hassle-free once the new system is implemented. The system is expected to be brought into operation within the next 30 days.

Nepal Telecom has also intensified its preparations to provide its various services completely online in order to give priority to digital transformation. Products like e-SIM delivery, complaint management, lost SIM recovery and SIM ownership transfer can now be availed online from the comfort of their home. This is expected to provide great relief to customers especially in remote areas. It is also expected to reduce the congestion in the office and make service delivery more systematic.

Another important aspect of improving customer service is a plan to establish a ‘one-stop service’ help desk. As per the action plan of the Ministry, the help desk will be set up in all the offices of Nepal Telecom and the customers will get all their problems resolved from one place. This is expected to eliminate the compulsion to visit different counters and reduce the time to receive services.

Along with this, the quality of 4G mobile network service is also being improved. At present, complaints of weak service are being raised in various parts of the country. The ministry has stated that preparations are underway to revise the policy provisions and provide additional frequencies to address this problem. The government has set a target to improve the quality of service by completing necessary policy reforms within the next 30 days.