Kathmandu, October 3

Nepal Telecom is set to be the first telecommunications company in the country to roll out fourth-generation (4G) service, as Nepal Telecommunication Authority (NTA) has approved its application and sought details of its rollout plan.

The telecommunication regulator, on Sunday, wrote a letter to NT asking it to submit a detailed plan to operate 4G service. Two other applicants — Ncell and Smart Telecom — had also sought NTA’s go-ahead to roll out the service.

“We have asked NT to submit its plan to begin the 4G service in Nepal. We will issue the 4G licence to the company after we have gone through the its work plan thoroughly and are satisfied with its strategy,” Min Prasad Aryal, spokesperson for NTA told The Himalayan Times.

According to Aryal, NT will have to come up with clear work plan to roll out the 4G service, including the location and date from which it will launch the service.

Earlier, NT Managing Director Kamini Rajbhandari had informed that the company would be able to roll out 4G services to its customers within two months after getting NTA’s approval.

“We are holding internal discussions to prepare the work plan. We will soon forward it to NTA,” NT Spokesperson Pratibha Vaidya said, adding that they are optimistic about being able to offer 4G service to NT subscribers in the near future.

According to the operator, rolling out the 4G service should be quite simple as it can be done with existing infrastructure of 3G services, which is being provided to customers at present.

Meanwhile, NTA is yet to take decision on the proposal of private telecommunication operator Ncell to launch 4G service in the country. Though the Frequency Management Department of NTA had recommended NTA’s board to approve the proposal of both Ncell and NT to introduce 4G service, NTA has delayed the decision for Ncell.

“The proposal of Ncell to begin 4G has reached NTA’s board. However, the board is yet to decide on the matter,” added Aryal.

The proposal of another operator Smart Telecom, which had also approached NTA for the permission to introduce 4G service, has already been

rejected by the Frequency Management Department of NTA citing that the operator has failed to meet certain criteria to run the 4G service.

Already introduced in various countries, 4G network is reported to be 10 times faster than existing 3G networks.