Nepal using Chinese broadband loss for India: Expert

New Delhi [India], Jan 12 (ANI): India needs to beef up its cyber security as China on Friday became Nepal's second internet service provider, breaking India's monopoly in providing the internet access.

Speaking to ANI Cyber Expert Pawan Duggal said, "It is indeed a loss for India, both revenue wise and strategically too."

"Now, India needs to setup a cyber army like China has, should be prepared for non-state and state actors targeting our computer systems," he added.

On Friday, the state-owned Nepal Telecom and the China Telecom formally established the collaboration for the trans-border internet connection.

Nepal which shares the mountainous border with Northern China often faces hardships very often because of the geographical difficulties. The fiber link route which now has entered Nepal via Rasuwagadhi still is to erase the doubt of the people.

Amir Shrestha, a user of facilities provided by Nepal Telecom, said, "The establishment of the internet connection between the two countries is a positive thing. But the earthquake which shook Nepal two years before has had disrupted the border points which are still to be operational. From today the Nepal and China are going to have the broadband connection but I still doubt over its smooth commencement."

Nepal Telecom inked an agreement with its Chinese counterpart to acquire the internet bandwidth in 2016, but logistics and technical problems incurred at the time of establishing the cross-border optical fiber delayed the procedure.

With the concerns over the problems which are inevitable, the Nepali governmental telecom service provider claims it to be resolved on the basis of mutual correspondence between the two service providers.

Prativa Baidhya, a spokesperson of Nepal Telecom, Any of the technical problems which incur in the route will be solved by the concerning sides."

As per NT, Chinese internet will be supplied via the Rasuwagadhi gateway.

As the use of internet has been increasing rapidly in the country, Chinese internet bandwidth is taken as an alternative source for Nepal to meet the ever-increasing bandwidth demand. Moreover, the commercial operation of the Chinese bandwidth project will end Nepal's sole dependence on India for internet bandwidth.

Nepal is currently linked to the global internet connectivity through Indian telecom operators via different optical fiber connections in Biratnagar, Bhairahawa and Birgunj, among others.

Besides ending the monopoly of bandwidth supply, the Chinese internet gateway is also expected to facilitate service providers in Nepal to establish bandwidth connection with other countries through China.

Though NT is purchasing limited volume of the internet from China in the first phase, the company has said that it will increase the volume of Chinese internet gradually in the coming days.

Meanwhile, the optional bandwidth from China is also expected to increase the competition between the various internet service providers in the country, reduce internet cost for consumers and boost the quality of internet in the country.

As Nepal Telecom is learnt to have tapped Hong Kong's server, customers are unlikely to face any problems while surfing Google and other sites using the Chinese bandwidth. (ANI)