Nepal coverage

What the Nepal numbers mean

Two numbers matter and only one of them is the one every seller quotes. The typical speed, 21 Mbps, tells you what a good moment looks like.

The tenth percentile, 5 Mbps, is the one that matters. It is the speed in the worst tenth of the day, when the cell above the station is full and everybody around you is on it too. A country with a high median and a low floor is a country that works beautifully right up until the moment you actually need it.

If the trip depends on video calls or tethering, plan around the busy figure rather than the typical one.

What happens in Nepal when the network is busy

Congestion is not a fault, it is a Tuesday evening. The question is what your eSIM can do about it, and for most travel eSIMs the answer is nothing: one wholesale agreement per country, one network, and no way out except buying a second eSIM from somebody else while standing in the street.

Here, Orbislo traffic runs over Ncell and NTC. When the network you are on degrades we move you to another one, mid trip, without you asking, and tell you afterwards rather than interrupting you at the time.

Mobile operators in Nepal

• Nepal Telecom: Nepal Doorsanchar Company, trading as Nepal Telecom, had 15,885,028 mobile subscriptions at the end of August 2026 and 53.7 percent of all voice subscriptions counting its fixed lines, according to the regulator's monthly indicators.
• Ncell: Ncell had 14,046,382 mobile subscriptions at the end of August 2026, a 46.3 percent share of voice subscriptions. It is one of only two licensed mobile network operators, alongside Nepal Telecom.
• Mobile broadband share: Of 27,689,050 mobile broadband subscriptions at the end of August 2026, Nepal Telecom held 55.4 percent and Ncell 44.6 percent. Mobile subscriptions equal 102.6 percent of the population on the regulator's count.
• Ncell ownership: Ncell was Nepal's first private telecom operator, set up in 2004 as Mero Mobile and in service since 2005. On 1 December 2023 Spectrlite UK bought Reynolds Holdings, which owns 80 percent of Ncell, from the Axiata Group.
• Smart Telecom: Smart Telecom, once a mobile operator in Nepal, lost its licence in April 2023 after failing to pay a renewal fee of 20 billion rupees plus 3 billion rupees in late fees by the 16 April deadline.
• Satellite phone operators: Two companies, Constellation and I4 Technology, hold licences for satellite mobile service in Nepal. Together they had 1,221 subscribers at the end of August 2026, against almost 30 million mobile subscriptions.

Older networks in Nepal

• Nepal Telecom phased out its CDMA and wireless local loop phone service and its EVDO data service from Shrawan 2080, which began in mid July 2023. A CDMA handset has no network in Nepal.
• Ncell is shutting down its 3G network and moving voice to VoLTE on 4G. Voice keeps working on 2G and 4G, but a phone without 4G loses Ncell mobile data once 3G is switched off in its area. VoLTE is activated by dialling *123*11#.
• 3G mobile broadband fell from 25.78 percent of the population in 2080/81 to 2.96 percent in 2081/82, while 4G rose to 87.90 percent, the regulator reports. Nepal launched 3G in 2064 BS, the first SAARC country to do so.
• At the end of August 2026 the regulator counted 741,409 3G mobile broadband subscriptions against 26,947,641 on 4G, and still listed 2,317,164 users on 2G.
• Nepal Telecom plans to finish closing its 3G network in fiscal year 2083/84, starting with Chitwan as a pilot cluster, and has already begun switching off 2G in the 1800 MHz band.

5G in Nepal

• Nepal has no commercial 5G. In June 2026 the regulator said it had finalised the spectrum for 5G and was ready to auction it, and Nepal Telecom said it would launch in the major cities once it receives frequencies.
• Nepal, Bhutan and Afghanistan were the only South Asian countries without commercial 5G in mid 2026. Nepal Telecom put the share of 5G capable handsets in Nepal above 20 percent, up from about five percent during its trials.
• Ncell applied in April 2026, for a third time, to run 5G trials, asking for 15 MHz in the 700 MHz band and 10 MHz in the 2600 MHz band. Its earlier applications date from April and August 2021.
• Nepal Telecom began a 5G trial on 5 February 2022 at Babarmahal and Sundhara in Kathmandu, using 60 MHz in the 2600 MHz band. The trial stayed internal, also at sites in Pokhara and Birgunj, until the regulator took the frequency back.
• Nepal Telecom says it will roll out 5G either as non standalone, reusing its existing Huawei 4G equipment, or as standalone, which would need a new tender. It asked the regulator for 80 MHz of 5G spectrum free of charge.
• The regulator's 2082 spectrum auction procedure, approved by its decision 5520, assigns paired FDD spectrum in multiples of 2x5 MHz and unpaired TDD spectrum in multiples of 10 MHz, within the minimum and maximum set for each band.

Network notes for Nepal

• Nepal Telecom has offered 4G since 2017 and says it reaches all 77 districts and 741 of the country's 753 local bodies. An older SIM must be swapped for a 4G USIM to use it.
• Nepal Telecom's VoLTE works wherever it has 4G coverage, but only on a Nepal Telecom 4G SIM in a supported handset with the latest software. On a dual SIM phone the Nepal Telecom SIM must sit in the data slot.
• Nepal Telecom offers Wi-Fi calling, which carries calls and SMS over a Wi-Fi network where mobile signal is weak, on supported phones such as the iPhone XR and later. VoLTE has to be active first.
• Mobile coverage is limited in remote areas, including long stretches of the Annapurna Circuit trek. British travel advice suggests renting a satellite phone and telling family you will be out of contact.
• Along the southern border, the regulator has investigated interference from Indian operators on Nepal Telecom's 900 MHz network in Ilam, Parsa, Mahottari and Dhanusha, and illegal boosters strengthening Indian signals in Parsa and Saptari. A phone near the border can pick up Indian networks.