Ncell to roll out 4G service in three districts within a month after NTA issues licence

Kathmandu, November 14

Privately-owned telecommunication company Ncell has said that it will be able to rollout 4G searvice to its customers within one month after receiving 4G licence.

Submitting its 4G rollout plan to telecommunication sector regulator — Nepal Telecommunications Authority (NTA) — on November 4, Ncell has expressed its readiness to launch 4G (fourth generation) service.

After issuing 4G licence to Nepal Telecom (NT), NTA had sought a rollout plan from Ncell to launch the service in Nepal in October-end.

Under its 4G rollout plan, Ncell has said that it will begin providing the 4G services to customers simultaneously from Kathmandu, Pokhara and Damauli in the first phase, after receiving the licence from NTA. “The operator has proposed to extend its 4G service to other parts of the country in a phase-wise manner,” said NTA Spokesperson Min Prasad Aryal.

NT is rolling out 4G service from Kathmandu and Pokhara in initial phase.

Meanwhile, Ncell has also sought 20 MHz frequency from the NTA under the 1,800 MHz band. Currently, Ncell has 11 MHz frequency bandwidth while NT has 15 MHz frequency in the band.

According to Aryal, the Frequency Management Department of NTA will study frequency-related proposal while NTA board will analyse the overall rollout plan of Ncell before making a decision.

“We are yet to look into the details of Ncell’s rollout plan to launch 4G. The NTA board will issue 4G licence to Ncell if it deems the action plan to be feasible,” Aryal added.

If NTA issues 4G licence to Ncell, it will be the second company to operate 4G service in Nepal after NT. After acquiring licence to operate 4G service from the government, NT, as per NTA’s direction, is preparing to begin the service from January 1, 2017.

Already introduced in various nations, 4G is the latest wireless telecommunication technology that delivers fastest data service on mobile devices. As per operators, 4G service can be launched after some software upgradation on the existing infrastructure used for 3G data service.