Nepal 5G Spectrum Auction 2026: What NTA Announced

Four years after Nepal Telecom conducted its first 5G trials and more than a decade after South Korea and the United States launched commercial 5G services, the Nepal Telecommunications Authority announced on 21 June 2026 that it has completed preparations for a 5G spectrum auction. The announcement, made during the NTA's regular quarterly briefing, signals the closest Nepal has come to formally entering the 5G era — though a firm auction date has not yet been set.

NTA's June 21 Announcement: What Was Said

NTA officials confirmed that internal groundwork for the auction is complete, including the drafting of spectrum assignment conditions, reserve price assessments, and eligibility criteria for bidders. The authority said the auction will follow international best practices for spectrum allocation and that qualified telecom operators holding valid service licences will be eligible to participate.

The announcement did not specify which frequency bands will be auctioned — a critical detail that will determine the type and reach of 5G services operators can offer. Mid-band spectrum around 3.5 GHz, the global workhorse for 5G capacity, is expected to be the primary offering, though NTA has not confirmed this publicly.

Ncell, Nepal's privately held mobile operator, has applied for 5G trial permission three separate times since 2021 without receiving a full commercial licence to proceed. Ncell submitted a new licence renewal commitment earlier in 2026 that includes an obligation to launch 5G once spectrum is allocated. The operator currently covers a majority of Nepal's urban mobile subscribers.

Nepal Telecom's 5G Plan: Phase 1 Coverage

Nepal Telecom, the state-owned carrier, has internally decided to launch 5G in major cities once spectrum is in hand. Phase 1 will cover Kathmandu and Pokhara — a realistic starting point given that the bulk of the operator's infrastructure investment is concentrated in the Bagmati and Gandaki corridors.

Nepal Telecom's existing 4G network has expanded considerably. The number of 4G subscribers rose from 25.11 million in March 2025 to 26.58 million in March 2026, an addition of roughly 1.46 million users in twelve months. Total broadband subscriptions across all operators reached 30.98 million as of mid-May 2026, with a penetration rate of 146.55 percent of the population when counting multiple SIMs per person. Mobile broadband accounts for 27.5 million of those connections.

The target fiscal year for Nepal Telecom's 5G launch is FY 2082/83 in the Nepali calendar, which corresponds to 2025–26 in the Gregorian system. Given that the spectrum auction preparations were only confirmed in June 2026, meeting that internal deadline would require an unusually fast auction and rollout process.

Why Nepal Still Has No 5G: A Timeline

Nepal Telecom ran its first 5G trials roughly four years ago, demonstrating basic 5G capability in a limited area of Kathmandu. Those trial results were never publicly released, and the exercise did not lead to any policy commitment on spectrum or commercial timelines.

The governments that followed — through several changes of administration between 2021 and the March 2026 elections — consistently prioritised improving 4G quality over allocating new spectrum for 5G. The rationale was reasonable: millions of Nepalis in rural and semi-urban areas still experience poor or no 4G connectivity, and 5G without universal 4G coverage risks widening the digital divide further.

The result is that Nepal now sits alongside Bhutan and Afghanistan as the only three South Asian countries without a commercial 5G network. The contrast with its neighbours is sharp. India launched commercial 5G in October 2022 and had reached over 60 cities within a year. China, which shares a long border with Nepal, has built one of the world's largest 5G networks and is already participating in international discussions on 6G standards. Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, and Pakistan have all moved ahead of Nepal on 5G timelines.

What 5G Will Mean for Nepali Users and Businesses

For ordinary consumers in Kathmandu, 5G's most immediate benefit would be speed and latency. Current 4G speeds in Nepal's urban areas average between 15 and 30 Mbps on most networks, with latency around 30–50 milliseconds. 5G mid-band networks typically deliver 100–400 Mbps with latency under 10 milliseconds — a meaningful improvement for video streaming, remote work, and mobile gaming.

The business implications are potentially more significant. Kathmandu's fintech sector, which processed Rs 477.7 billion in digital wallet transactions in the first ten months of FY 2025–26, handles high transaction volumes through mobile networks. Lower latency and higher bandwidth would support more complex real-time financial applications, including the mobile-first lending and embedded finance tools that NRB's new Regulatory Sandbox — launched in May 2026 — is designed to encourage operators to develop.

The government's announcement in the FY 2026/27 budget of a Sovereign AI Compute Centre in Syuchatar, Kathmandu, also creates a potential 5G use case. High-throughput, low-latency 5G connectivity would be needed for any serious edge computing or AI inference applications built on top of that infrastructure.

On pricing, Nepali consumers should expect 5G data plans to carry a premium over current 4G rates when services first launch, with costs likely declining over two to three years as competition increases and infrastructure costs are amortised. Nepal Telecom's current 4G broadband plans range from approximately Rs 600 to Rs 1,200 per month for typical consumer packages. 5G launch pricing at double or more that range would not be unusual.

When Can Nepalis Realistically Expect 5G?

Working through the sequence of remaining steps, a realistic assessment puts commercial 5G availability in Kathmandu no earlier than mid to late 2027.

The NTA must formally announce auction rules and publish a notice period, typically 30 to 60 days, for interested operators to register and prepare bids. The auction itself requires operator due diligence, government review of bids, and formal spectrum assignment — a process that has taken three to six months in comparable South Asian markets. After spectrum assignment, operators must procure 5G base station equipment, complete site surveys, install hardware, and run network testing before commercial launch. Equipment lead times from vendors such as Nokia and Ericsson currently run three to six months for large orders.

The NTA's June 21 statement that preparations are complete is an important step. But it is the beginning of an administrative process, not the end of one. If the auction launches by September 2026 and proceeds without legal challenges or delays, spectrum could be assigned by December 2026. That would put Nepal Telecom's Kathmandu Phase 1 launch in the second or third quarter of 2027 — if equipment procurement, installation, and testing proceed on schedule.

A further complication is Ncell's pending licence renewal. The operator's licence and the 5G auction are administratively linked, and any delay in resolving the renewal terms could affect Ncell's ability to bid. If only Nepal Telecom participates in the initial auction, competition — and the consumer price pressure that comes with it — will take longer to materialise.

For now, Nepal's 28.3 million digital wallet users and 26.58 million 4G subscribers will continue operating on existing networks. The NTA's June announcement moves the 5G question from policy debate to administrative process. Whether that process runs on schedule will determine whether Nepalis see 5G in 2027 or have to wait longer still.