January 02, 2016: After a long wait, Nepal Telecom has launched 4G service in Nepal based on long term evolution (LTE) technology. It is the first time in the country that a mobile service provider has started 4G service. NT on January 1began the new service with the soft launch of 4G in Kathmandu valley and Pokhara.
In the initial phase, the company will provide services to 350,000 customers of the two regions. Similarly, NT is planning to expand the service in 15 sub-metropolitans in the second phase. Introduced in 2010 globally, the service arrived seven years later in Nepal. Currently, 4G services are available in more than 160 countries.
Though Nepal was the first country among the SAARC countries to introduce 3G service, 4G services started notably late in the country. Nepal Telecommunications Authority (NTA) permitted NT to operate 4G service three months ago.
Telecom received permission to run Technology Neutrality and 4G on 1800 band from NTA. Refarming the 15Mhz frequency among the 1800 band, NT started the LTE service by separating 10Mhz for GSM and remaining 5Mhz for 4G service. According to the company, internet speed of up to 32.4 Mb per second will be available from the 5Mhz frequency.
“NTA is working on to manage frequency of existing 1800 band for maximum utilization on 4G service,” said Digambar Jha, Chairman of NTA. Speaking on the launch program, Surendra Kumar Karki, Minister for Information and Communication said that the 4G service will bring revolution in the field of information and technology.
On the process of service, the company upgraded the status of popular sector sites and network. The upgradation of 380 and 25 BTS tower in Kathmandu and Pokhara respectively have been completed. NT is planning to add 59 towers immediately. For that, Chinese mobile company Huawei is assisting NT on infrastructure aspect. As per the company, till now expenditure of USD 3.6 million has been made to start 4G service.
For now post-paid customers of NT can only use the service and have to wait for a month by pre-paid customers. 4G service can be activated in the rate of 2G or 3G.
NT has brought promotional packages on the occasion of beginning of the service. Telecom is providing 4Gb data for four days with1Gb free data per day for the customer registering for 4G service. Likewise, the service will be currently unavailable in iPhone.
How to activate the service?
Dial *444# to know whether 4G services can be available or not and to activate the service. The service can be activated on free of charge. A signal of 4G or LTE will be seen in mobile after the activation.