NT to phase out CDMA

Nepal Telecom, the pioneer operator is known to phase out CDMA within 3 years span. CDMA mobile technology or service is the perfect technology to provide mobile coverage for a country with mountainous/hilly terrain. As GSM network expands to remote areas with the 10 Million project, NT plans to remove CDMA base stations gradually.

Currently, Ntc is implementing 2 Million CDMA project with which it is expanding 2G/3G services to remote areas. But with this phase-out decision, it seems the project expansion will stall. It was in 2006 that NT launched CDMA with limited mobility in Kathmandu and later extended to other parts.

CDMA in Ntc

NT brought EVDO (3G CDMA) service in 2010, providing data service (of 3.1 Mbps). NT holds around 1.5 million CDMA subscribers (including the data only users in EVDO through USB dongle). Customers living or traveling to the remote parts of the country prefer CDMA for voice call and data where there are no other means of communication available. NT is even providing cheaper data tariff in CDMA when compared to GSM.

But the current trend shows that the subscribers in CDMA are going down due to non-availability of different range of Handsets, the absence of some other services like Value-added services (VAS) and the growing coverage of 2G/3G GSM.