Chitwan. 5G has come into operation in many countries of the world. Some countries are preparing for the 5G test. In neighboring China, the 5G service has now reached more than 365 million people.
Another neighboring country, India's telecom companies, have already started testing 5G. The issue of testing 5G in Nepal has been under discussion for a long time.
The Radio Frequency Policy Determination Committee, chaired by the then Minister of Communications and Information Technology, Parbat Gurung, has given permission to the state-owned telecom service provider Nepal Telecom to test the FiveG service.
Another telecom company, Ncell, has also sought permission from the government for the FiveG test. But no decision has been taken so far on Ncell as the ministry is without a minister.
However, the fiveG test of Nepal Telecom, which has already received permission after the decision, is also uncertain. Due to lack of coordination between the regulatory body Nepal Telecom Authority and Telecom, no progress has been made on the FiveG test.
Though discussions were held between NEA and Nepal Telecom on the issue of FiveG test, no result has been obtained from it. The telco has not responded to the NEA's request for necessary details.
"In the first phase, discussions were held with the telco," Amber Sthapit, director of the authority and head of the frequency department, told Tekpana. However, no answer has been received so far.
As soon as the reply to a letter was not received, NEA has written to the telco again pointing out. Director Sthapit said that no reply has been received so far. "Perhaps there is a problem with the frequency," he said.
However, our objective is to test the pure FiveG. ' Which has become a problem for telecom.
"In the first phase, we sent an action plan," said a telecom official. Some of the things in the procedure are not practical.
That is why Telecom has held discussions with NEA. We have demanded the band as the most suitable frequency for the FiveG is the 2600 MHz band, 'said the telecom official.
On the one hand, the infrastructure brought for testing should be returned, on the other hand, there is no return on investment due to uncertainty in frequency availability. That is why further discussions are needed with NEA, the telco said.
The government will distribute the returned frequency to the service provider only through auction. This means that there is no guarantee that Telecom will get 2600 MHz frequency when FiveG is launched commercially.
This is because it is not possible to say right now which service provider will get the price and frequency when going to the auction. That is why the telco has been demanding that the government should make available the frequencies currently being tested for the security of its investment in infrastructure.