Talk more

KATHMANDU, May 11: Cell phones are ubiquitous. Everyone owns one and why not? Cell phones are so compatible and so useful. You get to talk to anyone at anytime and from anywhere. Prapti Gurung is 16 now and she got her first cell when she was only 14. She loves using her cell phone and can´t really think of living a single day without it. But then, sometimes although she carries her phone along, she can do nothing with it, why? Well, because she has no balance remained.[break]

 

"Usually a 50-rupee recharge lasts me two days," she says. She buys the recharge card using her pocket money because she gets no extra allowance for mobile recharge. "It sometimes becomes difficult for me when I happen to finish my talk time fast," she says.



Recharging phones seems to be quite difficult for the youth especially for those who have no source of income. Similar to Prapti, there are not many lucky ones who get extra money to recharge their phones.



Priya Nakarmi, another 16-year-old faces the same problem of recharge. She has, in fact, made a rule which she strictly follows. "I get a recharge at the beginning of a month and make it last all through 30 days," she says. The pocket money she gets is used in ´so many other things´ and so one recharge a month is all that she can afford. "Sometimes when I finish up my balance fast I have to leave it at home because I have no other option," she says. She adds that ´recharging can be very difficult when you don´t have a job and your pocket money is limited´.



There are also those who ´have to recharge´ their phones because ´they have to talk´. Rajiv Shrestha is one among those. He confides that he talks to his girlfriend every day and the call he says sometimes is four hours long. He can no longer use his landline at home because his father has given him a severe coaxing when the bill turned a little too long.



"I have a difficult time recharging my phone; I have stolen money from home to recharge," he says. He confides of having borrowed from friends and lies to parents. "I sometimes tell them I need money for text books and other stationery."



The recharge problem seems quite big and so it needs some attention paid. Of course there is no way to use your cell phone without spending some cash but there definitely are a certain ways by which you can minimize your phone bill. Different telecommunication companies have different schemes under which they minimize their call rates and sometimes give bonus talk time.



Here, Republica helps you get to know all the rates so that you can choose the one that best suits you. The tariff is of pre-paid mobile service provided by the Ncell, UTL and NTC.

Keep your ears open for the special occasion schemes NTC keeps coming with.



Now that you know all the rates, go ahead and make the most out of your phones. Happy talking!

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