It has been quite some time since Nepal Telecom (NT or still NTC for some) has been providing 3G internet service for its mobile subscribers. The service is available for all types of sim subscribers—pre-paid and postpaid. Using this service, we can use high-speed internet on our mobile devices on the go.

How to Activate 3G

If you take a new sim card from one of their service centers, it will already be 3G capable. But if you are an old subscriber who has been using the same old sim since the early days (or the days of 2G), then you need to activate it on your phone. You don’t have to change the sim card. Just send an SMS and it will be activated for your sim. You might want to check your coverage beforehand.

Activating 3G (for old sim cards): Open up your SMS application, type 3G and send it to 1400.

You will soon receive a confirmation informing you that 3G internet service by Nepal Telecom has been activated for your sim. This step isn’t required for new sim card subscribers. Activation is free.

The official webpage mentions a subscription charge of Rs. 200 with Rs. 100 talk time which is for obtaining a new sim and subscribing to their overall services.

How to Use 3G

After you have made sure that the 3G subscription is a success, you can connect to their internet service and you will get access to the high speed internet. Usually in mobile phones, you will see the 3G or H (indicating HSDPA) on the top of your screen (in the notification area).

Connecting to their internet service is automated for modern smartphones after you turn on the data. Just know that you might be able to connect with the automatic information that your phone retrieves from the network. Sometimes, you’d have to use the APN ntwap or ntnet for the connection to go live. At other times (highly unlikely), you might even have to use the Proxy Server or IP: 192.80.7.133 with Port: 8000.

Subscribing to 3G data Packs

Nepal Telecom prices their data simply at Rs. 1 for 1 MB of data (VAT exclusive). So it’s actually around Rs. 1.13 for 1 MB of data. However, you can subscribe to their data packs to get even cheaper access to internet data.

Here are the package details:

To subscribe to data packs, just SMS the package you want to subscribe to 1415. For example:

• DATA200MB
• DATA5GB

Note the validity of the data packs as well. You will have to use up the data in downloads and uploads by the time limit.

To check how much data or balance you have left, just type VL in SMS and send it to 1415.