Sunday, January 1, 2017

Nepal Telecom rolls out 4G service

Nepal Telecom (NT) has rolled out fourth generation (4G) mobile network services for the first time in country today.
Minister for Information and Communications Surendra Kumar Karki inaugurated the service at a special function in Kathmandu.
Inaugurating the service, Minister Karki said that Nepal has not been able to connect information and communications technology (ICT) to the country’s development process though linkage between them is a must to achieve development goals. "The 4G service does not only aim to facilitate NT’s subscribers but also for the development of other sectors and the country’s overall development process,” Karki said.
Similarly, managing director of NT Kamini Rajbhandari, on the occasion, said that NT is committed to bring the latest internet technology in Nepal. “Launching 4G service is a part of enhancing Nepal Telecom’s consumer satisfaction," she said, adding that the launch of 4G will not only strengthen the position of NT in the market but will also help increase revenue for the government.
According to the telecom service provider, 4G services are available in most parts of Kathmandu and Pokhara, although it will initially be available only for post-paid phone service subscribers. "The service will benefit almost 350,000 NT post-paid subscribers in Kathmandu Valley and Pokhara," it added. "Post-paid users can activate the service by dialing *444#,” the NT said, adding that pre-paid service subscribers have to wait until February 4.
In a bid to facilitate its customers with smooth 4G service, NT has enabled the service at its 308 base transceiver stations (BTS) GSM towers in Kathmandu Valley and 25 BTS GSM towers in Pokhara. However, the 4G service in Pokhara will be available for GSM post-paid users based in New Road and Lakeside only.
NT has said that subscribers can enjoy 4G service at the same rate of one rupee per Mb data being applied for 3G.
To subscribe to 4G service, a customer’s mobile device should first be 4G compatible (Band-3 1800Mhz). Similarly, in case the post-paid SIM is of an older version, the SIM needs to be replaced with newer 4G-enabled SIM (Universal or U-SIM), the NT said, adding that some versions of iPhone will not support 4G for the time being.
Compared to 3G services currently in use, 4G services will have double the speed for internet services, the service provider said adding, “Under a 4GB Promotional Package, Nepal Telecom has offered 1GB data free for four days.”
4G is the fourth generation of wireless mobile telecommunications technology, succeeding the 3G currently in use in Nepal.
The 4G is the latest wireless internet service succeeding 3G and allows higher internet speed as compared to 3G. NT has claimed that users can enjoy 32.4 Mbps per second download speed using 4G.
The first-release of the Long Term Evolution (LTE) standard – a 4G candidate system – is commercially deployed in Oslo, Norway, and Stockholm, Sweden since 2009.
3G technology created the first networks fast enough to make smartphones practical.
Before that, they were too slow to allow subscribers to do all the things that make smartphones ‘smart’ like streaming videos, quickly surfing the web and downloading music. But 4G really allows technologies in smartphones to spread their wings. That is because they a lot faster than 3G. So when a subscriber wants to download an app or stream a TV show in HD, it can be done without buffering and lag.

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