The Nepal Telecom (NT) resumed the mobile phone services that were snapped one week ago in Kathmandu from Thursday afternoon.

The NT had disconnected both post-paid and pre-paid mobile services on Thursday, the first the nationwide general strike of the seven opposition parties, at the directives of the government.

Telecom employees had also been carrying out protests demanding immediate resumption of services.

The resumption of the mobile phone services comes on eve of the Nepali New Year.

The government had snapped the mobile phone services twice after the February 1, 2005, royal takeover. NT officials said that net loss of Nepal’s giant telecommunication service provider has grown to Rs. 2.5 billion due to frequent disruption of services.

The NT has distributed around 500 thousand mobile phone lines across the country– nearly half of the mobile lines have been distributed to in the Kathmandu Valley.

King Gyanendra is expected to address the nation on the New Year day,while speculations of some drastic announcements are rife in Kathmandu’s political circle.

On Wednesday, after six days, the government ended the curfew in the capital as angry protests organised by the seven parties continued. nepalnews.com mk Apr 13 06