Nepal government-owned telco to introduce social network site

Nepal government-owned telecommunication service provider Nepal Telecom will introduce a new social network site within the first week of March, officials said.

Nepal Telecom has been currently testing the new social network internally at a time when the social networks like Facebook and Twitter are making revolution worldwide.

"The social site will have all facilities as in Facebook while it will also have Skype, group message and Viber facility among others," Anoop Ranjan, managing director of Nepal Telecom, told Xinhua Wednesday, adding that the preparations to launch the social network were at the final stage.

However, Nepal Telecom is yet to name its site. Even though the social network was previously named "Chautari", it decided to find some other name which can help promote its brand.

"The social network will have more facilities than Facebook and it will be very appropriate for Nepalis," Guna Keshari Pradhan, spokesperson of Nepal Telecom, said.

With the introduction of the new social network, Nepali users can use it for a number of purposes including making friends, chatting, generating group messages, making internet protocol calls, uploading and sharing photos and videos, writing status and comments, among others.

The new social network aims at benefiting one million users which will be later increased to 10 million people. Nepal Telecom has invested around Nepali Rs.900 million so far to construct the social network site.