Authority's opinion is that it is appropriate to proceed with the matter of shutting down 2G only after the impact assessment of 3G
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Ncell, a private sector telecommunication service provider company, has prepared to close its 3G service by the end of 2025.
In view of the rapid expansion of 5G services in some countries of the world, including India, and the fact that countries such as America and Australia have stopped 3G services, Ncell is also going to stop the service, which has been operating since 2010, said Jabbor Kayumov, the chief executive officer of Ncell. Ncell has been operating 4G service in Nepal since 2017.
Speaking at a program on 'Revitalizing the Telecom Industry' organized by the Nepal Economic Journalists Association (SEJAN) on Wednesday, Kayumov said that the government should tighten the importation of phones that do not use VoLTE technology. Mentioning that some countries have closed 2G, he thought that we are behind in this.
Recently, the data of Nepal Telecommunication Authority shows that the number of people using 2G service is increasing in Nepal. Last April, 14 lakh 71 thousand people used 2G service, by the end of January, more than 32 lakh 65 thousand people have taken this service across the country.
The number of 3G users has been stable in recent months. Since October, the number of 3G users in Nepal has been around 9/10 million. According to the authority's data, there were about 7.2 million 3G users last May, but in October, the number decreased to 420,000. Since then, the number of 3G users has not increased significantly. In the
program, Bhupendra Bhandari, chairman of the authority, opined that it would be appropriate to stop 3G first rather than immediately stop 2G. "It would be appropriate to shut down 3G and move on to shutting down 2G only after evaluating its impact," he said.
