But it need not remain that way. Only a few years after privatization, British consumers had a nationwide cellophane network for which they might have otherwise waited for a decade or more. Private competing phone companies fight each other to expand services, while state monopolies only fight the customers. Today, fewer than 15 percent of people in Kathmandu have telephones. Across Nepal, scarcely one percent has telephone service.
Private competitors can expand the service better and faster than government can.
Undoubtedly, NTC is working hard to upgrade its equipment and to provide faster connections and clearer lines than ever before. But NTC is reliant on money from the government and on foreign loans and grants. Private telecom companies will have quicker access to more money, better technology and the best technical experts. They will be able to retrain their workers better, and put them to work on the most modern machines. It is no secret that political turbulence and political interference is a major problem for every state-owned enterprise in Nepal and almost everywhere.