Nepal Telecom receives 4G LTE license

Nepal Telecom has received 4G license from the regulator, NTA. Previously Ntc has submitted its plan to the regulator and NTA approves it now. With the license, Nepal Telecom can now launch the 4G Services from January 1, 2017.

As already mentioned, Nepal Telecom is the first operator in the country to get the 4G license. Ntc has already prepared for the 4G LTE rollout and they will be the first operator to launch 4G in the country. It will be in 1800 MHz spectrum a.k.a Band 3, that the Nepal Telecom 4G service will use. The 2G GSM technology current uses 1800 MHz which will be re-farmed for 4G LTE service. As NTA does not provide additional spectrum, Ntc uses existing 5 MHz out of total 15 MHz, for LTE after re-farming. LTE stands for Long Term Evolution, which is the technology name for 4G mobile.

Nepal Telecom is first starting its 4G service in Kathmandu and Pokhara valley areas, and will extend to other areas gradually. Though Ncell and Smart had also applied for the 4G license, NTA rejects Smart’s request whereas no decision made for Ncells request. Ncell are continuously pushing NTA officials to award the 4G license to them soon. The license is in limbo due to the unresolved tax issue and the directives from parliamentary committee. Ncell tells they have already prepared their network infrastructure for 4G.

As told by Nepal Telecom, the maximum speed that a user can get from the 4G tower is 30 Mbps. This is possible during the initial launch. But for a loaded case (after operating for some period), the speed may go down. Though the speed in some cases is comparable to 3G network, the experience is somewhat steady due to low latency. Also the real time broadcast and HD video streaming will be very smooth from 4G.

Stay tuned for more news for 4G LTE in Nepal.