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Nepal ban hits Indian telecom firm
By agencies
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Friday, 20 January 2006, 20:30 IST
KATHMANDU: With the Nepal royal government banning all demonstrations and snapping telecom links, the Indian joint venture telecom firm UTL has been hit badly.
Nepals royal government headed by King Gyanendra snapped all telecom links Thursday morning as security forces began a massive nationwide hunt to arrest political leaders.
Though phone connections were restored after 8 a.m., mobile phones still remained out of order as well as all United Telecom Limited phones. This was the second time in less than a year that UTL's services were disrupted.
UTL, the first private telecom operator in the landlocked Hindu kingdom, is a joint venture between Tatas owned Videsh Sanchar Nigam Limited, state owned Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Limited and Telecommunications Consultants India Limited that had commenced operations in 2003.
In February last year, when King Gyanendra seized power with the help of the army and imposed a state of emergency and cut all phone lines, UTL was forced to suspend operations.