Nepal Telecom has made the technological leap offering its users with the latest flavors of mobile telephony.

The pioneers of telecommunications in Nepal, Nepal Telecom recently introduced 4G gathering much hype and appreciation from its users. Despite a very late entrance into the Nepali telecom scene, 4G was nevertheless anticipated if not much needed. The free data to the early birds in its introductory offer 1 GB per day and 100 MB per day for four days for Postpaid and Prepaid users respectively was a treat for all.

 Release Date for Nepal: January 2017

Service Available for:  NTC Postpaid & NTC Prepaid         

The fuss about 4G

4G stands for Forth Generation and is the latest technology in mobile communication.  In the evolution of GSM standards, 2G was the first successor which reformed to 3G and now, the introduction of 4G tries to outsmart 3G. It must be taken into account that the successive technologies are better in terms of network quality and data speeds. For example video streaming was made possible only after 3G.  To date, 2G is still an active service that our phones directly switch to in the absence of 3G/4G. 4G is often referred to as LTE and it stands for Long Term Evolution. While LTE isn’t exactly 4G in its truest sense, in general understanding the two terms are interchangeably used.

Why do you need 4G?

4G technology is most certainly the latest and better technology allowing blazing fast mobile data. In an internet centric world, smartphones spend most of the data loading internet data rather than connecting cellular calls. For the same, 4G gives user the power of WiFi like speeds that you’d generally be using at your home or offices. With the LTE service offered by Nepal Telecom, your cell phone can reach download speeds of up to 30Mbps according to NTC which means faster downloads, no more waiting for videos to buffer.  While put to test, the speed was only so much better than the 3G speeds and nowhere near what NTC claims to be. This maybe true only in the initial phase and hopefully the speed will catch up to 4G fluidity following subsequent expansions.

What will you need?

To enjoy the latest mobile technology, there are a couple of things you will need

  1. LTE Handset: A common issue faced by many is the lack of 4G support on their handsets. Not all devices come with 4G feature and hence cannot communicate with the 4G stations of Nepal Telecom. Since the technology is relatively new, older devices are deemed to miss this one out whereas many low range handsets still don’t offer this feature. Almost all newer, mid range to high range smartphone is  expected to have LTE capabilities.
  2. U-SIM: If your SIM card is over 2 years old, the one’s you decided to cut into small to fit into your current handset, most likely, it isn’t a USIM. While it might have been working fine till now, it no won’t be supporting the state of the art. Getting a new SIM is the only way out.
  3. Activation: Once you have the two things in place, all you need to do is activate 4G.

Note: Apple Devices are yet to get clearance for the service so iPhone users will have to wait a little longer.

How to activate?

The easiest method is to dial *444# on you mobile to activate the service. The service is free of cost. However, if you don’t own a USIM, requesting a new SIM (USIM of the same number) will cost you Rs. 50 and can be done from any NTC branch.

Launched on the occasion of the 13th anniversary of Nepal Telecom Pvt. Ltd. the 4G service of Nepal is the only one available in Nepal. So, despite arriving late to the scene, Nepal Telecom users can still boast to be on the only carrier to offer 4G in the country.  Having said that, it has not been easy for NT users. The service is expected to take a while to expand across the country and previous track record suggests that it’s not happening overnight.  Despite Nepal Telecom’s claims to have 3G coverage all over Nepal, users struggle to find a decent signal even within the capital. Nevertheless, the introduction of 4G is a major addition to our communications network and a positive step by the telco giant.  Users should really look forward to the high speed data and superior network quality in due course of time.