Nepal Telecom, the government-owned telecommunication service provider in Nepal, is unofficially reported to have been testing 4G in their network. It is no surprise as it has already got a license to operate 4G in Kathmandu and Pokhara. The rumor of NTC launching 4G in these two major cities in the second week of Poush is likely to turn into reality.
Nepal Telecom is bringing 4G technology by undertaking hardware and software upgrades in its already existing system. The 4G LTE that is going to be launched in Nepal will be of FDD band 3 as it will be working on 1800MHz. Make sure your phone supports this band before upgrading to 4G after the service goes live.
What is 4G? And why do we even need it?
You might have lots of curiosity on what exactly is 4G. I’d like to address that curiosity of yours in simplest of words possible. In short, it’s the name given to the fourth generation of mobile networks, just as the previous generation is called 3G. 4G is found coming together with the word LTE which stands for Long Term Evolution and is a type of 4G technology. 4G LTE aims to offer users faster, more reliable mobile broadband internet for devices like smartphones, tablets, and laptops.
4G is better and faster than 3G, a whole lot better. It has an incredible peak speed of 100Mbps (Megabits per second) theoretically only. Practically, a lot less but greater than twice that of 3G. 4G uses OFDM (Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing) technology. Basically, it’s a method of splitting and tight packing of data for parallel transmission using MIMO (Multiple Input Multiple Output) concepts. Basically, in laymen’s term 4G is a fast internet service provided by mobile networks with the high speed of 100Mbps.
Nepal Telecommunication Corporation(NTC) is the winner in the race for approval of the license. According to NTC, the prevailing WiMAX Service is up to the standard of 4G. Ncell has also applied for the license. Minister for Information and Communication, Mr. Sherdhan Rai said that the existing 3G service will be expanded nationwide and 4G service will be started at Kathmandu Metropolitan City along with some major sub-metropolitan cities.
The major drawback for 4G is its lack of traditional circuitry for telephony service as like in 3G. But we can use VoLTE (Voice over LTE) function provided by apps like Skype, Whatsapp, Viber, Facebook, etc. for telephony service. If someone wants to make a voice call from 4G network without VoLTE feature, the network is automatically dropped to 3G or 2G network.
The necessity of 4G is felt at various places. A better internet ensures the uninterrupted call (voice or video) to their loved ones. A faster one takes less time to download or upload a great movie, songs, images, etc. Live streaming is possible without waiting for buffering. And best of all speed ensures the development of a nation is on right track.
