Ncell, the private GSM operator has increased the data speed in its 3G data service. Ncell has announced that the speed has been boosted to 21 Mbps. The speed boost is possible with the latest upgrade of their Base stations. Previously the maximum speed we used to get from Ncell was around 9 Mbps in congestion free zones. After the earthquake the speed had gone down significantly due to the destruction of many sites in the affected areas but now Ncell has claimed it to be increased with the swap of new BTS in Kathmandu where the 21 Mbps is currently available. The swap will continue for sometime. Ncell believes that the 3G speed after the completion of the update will satisfy their customers in major cities.
The technology that is used for that data speed is HSPA+ in 3G which is also called 3.5G. Ncell’s rival, Nepal Telecom also claims to be using HSPA+ technology. But they have announced the data speed of 7.2 Mbps only. You can even get higher than that in some cities. We hope this technology upgrade and the competition between these two operators will have good impact on the network experience by customers.
