This post is created for travelers who might have difficulties getting connected to Nepal over the phone. Even for Nepalese, they ask; why does it take so long to get connected? Why am I hearing this message? Why can’t I leave a message if the phone is busy? I know I am on the right time to call Nepal but this message? Why is my minutes reduced just because I hear a nasty voice of a women from an automated voice machine ? Well, welcome to the post.

First, let’s watch the following video where a person calls from the United States using a $2 card. In this video you can hear the voice of a lady who tells you that YOUR phone has a problem. Would you believe it ?

The video is about 3MB in size, please wait for it to load…

I believe the message is wrong. It should say at least something like this:

• Sorry, we don’t own a satellite, The Indian satellite won’t link with us at this time so please call back later. There are few clouds in Kathmandu today. Do you have clouds over there ?
• Please call back later, all circuits are busy, some of them are being used by the employee.
• Well, Well, Well. Our Engineers need to go abroad to test this automated voice system. Hope you like this one. Please don’t get upset if our automated voice system reduces the balance of your prepaid phone card.
• Well, This lady’s voice sounded better than the voice of our General Manager, please listen to her and we promise you we won’t keep you on hold, so please don’t listen if you want to save. Here goes the voice. “Your phone doesn’t have outgoing call facility”

Picking on the last part again, when you call someone and the phone says, “Your phone…bla bla has no feature”, doesn’t that make your hairs stand on end ?

This is ridiculous. Also the English voice isn’t that clear to comprehend; perhaps Nepal Telecommunication gets more calls from Nepalese overseas than others and prefers the English voice to be as it is lousy. No personal attack on the person who is being recorded. You did good, but the recording of your voice was terrible.

Funny thing is, as soon as you hear that voice and you don’t press either # number or * star key on keypad of your phone, you lose money. Yeap. you lose it. Just because you heard the sound. If you watched the above video, you can see, the voice made the amount shorten by 15 cents. Thank you so much NTC for giving those voices instead of the voice of the family or friends or even traveler that could be expecting a travel company to pickup their phone.

I tell my friends, after you have dialed your home number, and you don’t hear anything for say 10 to 15 seconds, hang-up, or if you hear that women’s voice, hangup before she finishes; otherwise you will be losing some cents each time you call.

So, What’s The Best time to call Nepal ?

This is hard to guess. Holidays ? Bad idea. Day-time elsewhere (but Night-time in Nepal at that time, say like 2AM or 3AM) is good. Calling to cellphone costs a bit more; meaning your airtime is reduced 20% to 50% in some case. It’s easier to get connected to a cellphone than the regular phone. Wonder why ? If you are calling a travel agent, try to call them on their cellphone, you will get connected faster.

Out of my frustrations this image is born.

Well, when you are calling to a country that doesn’t own a satellite, may be the story is the same. By the way, who is that lady ? An Engineer working in NTC ? It would be great to know her name. The English voice needs a bit updating. Looking for suggestions?, Record it again. Please use a little bit longer sentence so people have time to hang-up!

Suggested Message : “Please hang-up before you hear everything. Sorry, all circuits are busy, please try again later! or better, our engineers are going abroad to test the voice system. If this has caused you any loss, we are sorry.”

A message to travelers calling Nepal:

If you are calling Nepal, keep trying or try in later time. Know what time it is back there. Some travel companies have cell-phones, try using that first. Here is a link useful for finding what’s the time in Nepal now ?Nepal Time Now! - This link opens in a new window.