Kathmandu, July 27

Government has started making preparations to allocate frequency for much-talked-about fourth generation (4G) technology. Though spectrum bands for the technology were fixed three years ago, the potential service providers are yet to get the frequency to roll out the services.

While issuing Radio Frequency Pricing and Distribution Policy in 2012, Ministry of Information and Communications (MoIC) had announced of speeding up work on auction of 4G spectrum to introduce the new technology. Known as successor to 3G, 4G service allows a user to get comprehensive and mobile broadband solution for laptops, computers, smartphones and wireless modems.

Capacity to offer data transfer speeds of up to 1GB per second is the main feature of the technology. As the speed is so high, 4G enables customer to enjoy multiple services, including IP telephony, watching high definition video without streaming, online gaming, easy and quick transfer of heavy files and video conferencing, among others.

“The demand for high-speed data service is growing in urban areas and we have also been suggested to introduce 4G service to address such demands,” said Digambar Jha, chairman of Nepal Telecommunications Authority (NTA), addressing an interaction on 4G spectrum allocation today. He expressed commitment to speed up the process to assign the frequency, explaining that the earlier delay was primarily caused as NTA did not have a chairman for a long time.

The interaction was organised to gather views on setting minimum and maximum bandwidth per operator for mobile broadband service, identify any additional bands for 4G and discuss existing international practices.

Representatives from different telecom companies and internet service providers urged the NTA to first auction spectrum in 2.3GHz as planned and start allocating frequency in 700MHz band for 4G with standard 15MHz to each operator.

Participants said that at least three operators should be allowed to operate the 4G service. NTA has already identified 700MHz, 2,300MHz, 2,600MHz and 3,300MHz as bands for assigning 4G frequency. However, even though companies like Nepal Telecom and Ncell have been asking for the 4G spectrum since last four years, the telecom regulator is yet to complete necessary preparations and assign the spectrum.

Other participants in the programme suggested the government to come up with a policy to allocate technology-neutral frequency, leaving it up to the operators to decide on whether they want to roll out 2G, 3G or 4G services. They have also urged to government to complete spectrum refarming at the earliest. “The bands of 700MHz, 800MHz and 900MHz can be refarmed too,” said Gary Yu, an expert from Huawei Technologies of China. He also said that with 17 million Nepali mobile users still not connected to the internet, the country has huge potential in expanding data service.

Talking about the technology-neutral spectrum, Bhesh Raj Kanel, former chairman of NTA, said that the government should first introduce migration policy to enable operators to choose the technology and service they want to focus on. “As there has been trend of spectrum hoarding, there must be a provision to penalise the operators that fail to perform as per the service roll out plan,” he said.Government has started making preparations to allocate frequency for much-talked-about fourth generation (4G) technology. Though spectrum bands for the technology were fixed three years ago, the potential service providers are yet to get the frequency to roll out the services.

While issuing Radio Frequency Pricing and Distribution Policy in 2012, Ministry of Information and Communications (MoIC) had announced of speeding up work on auction of 4G spectrum to introduce the new technology. Known as successor to 3G, 4G service allows a user to get comprehensive and mobile broadband solution for laptops, computers, smartphones and wireless modems.

Capacity to offer data transfer speeds of up to 1GB per second is the main feature of the technology. As the speed is so high, 4G enables customer to enjoy multiple services, including IP telephony, watching high definition video without streaming, online gaming, easy and quick transfer of heavy files and video conferencing, among others.

“The demand for high-speed data service is growing in urban areas and we have also been suggested to introduce 4G service to address such demands,” said Digambar Jha, chairman of Nepal Telecommunications Authority (NTA), addressing an interaction on 4G spectrum allocation today. He expressed commitment to speed up the process to assign the frequency, explaining that the earlier delay was primarily caused as NTA did not have a chairman for a long time.

The interaction was organised to gather views on setting minimum and maximum bandwidth per operator for mobile broadband service, identify any additional bands for 4G and discuss existing international practices.

Representatives from different telecom companies and internet service providers urged the NTA to first auction spectrum in 2.3GHz as planned and start allocating frequency in 700MHz band for 4G with standard 15MHz to each operator.

Participants said that at least three operators should be allowed to operate the 4G service. NTA has already identified 700MHz, 2,300MHz, 2,600MHz and 3,300MHz as bands for assigning 4G frequency. However, even though companies like Nepal Telecom and Ncell have been asking for the 4G spectrum since last four years, the telecom regulator is yet to complete necessary preparations and assign the spectrum.

Other participants in the programme suggested the government to come up with a policy to allocate technology-neutral frequency, leaving it up to the operators to decide on whether they want to roll out 2G, 3G or 4G services. They have also urged to government to complete spectrum refarming at the earliest. “The bands of 700MHz, 800MHz and 900MHz can be refarmed too,” said Gary Yu, an expert from Huawei Technologies of China. He also said that with 17 million Nepali mobile users still not connected to the internet, the country has huge potential in expanding data service.

Talking about the technology-neutral spectrum, Bhesh Raj Kanel, former chairman of NTA, said that the government should first introduce migration policy to enable operators to choose the technology and service they want to focus on. “As there has been trend of spectrum hoarding, there must be a provision to penalise the operators that fail to perform as per the service roll out plan,” he said.