Kathmandu: Have you ever dialled 100 to call the police using United Telecom Limited or Smart Telecom line? Or have you tried calling the fire brigade (101), using Ncell service? If you have, you know these numbers are not reachable, all thanks to the negligence of the telecom sector regulator and companies. Result: More than 50 per cent of telephone subscribers have been barred from using emergency numbers.
Three-digit short codes starting with digit ‘1’ have been allocated for emergency services such as police (100), fire brigade (101), ambulance (102), traffic police (103), Children Search Coordination Centre (104), Nepali Army-Kathmandu (105) and military police (106). As per the provision of the Nepal Telecommunications Authority, the telecom sector regulator, all telecom companies are obligated to provide access to emergency numbers to their customers free of charge. |
