Best SIM Card for Trekking in Nepal

Best SIM Card for Trekking in Nepal

Why a phone matters on a trek

Most of the useful calls happen before the trail gets high. You confirm a lodge, tell someone you have left the road, or check whether tomorrow’s flight is still on the board. In Kathmandu and Pokhara that is ordinary. Higher up, the phone is a convenience you may not have.

A SIM does not replace a plan. Download the map while you still have data. Leave the route and the dates with someone who is not walking. Keep the insurer’s number on paper. Our note on what a Nepal trek asks of a travel policy is the place for the rescue wording. This page is only about the SIM.

The same preparation sits next to the packing list and the notes for a smoother trip. A Japanese version of this SIM guide is at ネパールのトレッキングSIMカード.

NTC or Ncell

Two networks matter for a visitor. Nepal Telecom, which people still call NTC, is the national operator. Ncell is the private network that publishes a tourist SIM, including a counter at the airport.

Neither company has given us a village-by-village map of the trekking routes. We are not going to invent one. Ncell’s tourist page describes “reliable mobile service” and “fast 4G internet”. That is their marketing line, not a measurement from Everest Base Camp or Dolpo.

On a remote walk, many people buy the Nepal Telecom prepaid SIM first. The SIM itself is inexpensive, and it is the country’s own network. That is a reason to consider it. It is not proof that NTC is stronger on your trail this month. Ncell is the simpler purchase for a visitor who wants a priced tourist pack at the airport. The better SIM is the one that works on the route you are actually walking, and the lodge will know more about this week than a web page will.

If the phone holds two SIMs, some people keep Ncell for the cities and Nepal Telecom for the trail. That is a practical split, not a coverage test.

What coverage means in the mountains

Both operators serve Kathmandu and Pokhara. On a trek, a signal is something you meet in some larger villages and often lose on a pass, in forest, or in a side valley. The ridge between you and the tower matters. So does the weather, and which way the lodge wall faces.

A bar of signal is not the same as a page that loads. Voice may work when a photo will not. A lodge that had data last October may not have it on the day you arrive. Ask. Do not plan a navigation app that needs a live connection, and do not plan a rescue that needs one either.

We did not find an official map that says Namche, Gorak Shep, Gokyo, Annapurna Base Camp, or Larkya La has or lacks 4G. Those claims stay out of this article.

Kathmandu, Pokhara, and the trail

Use the cities for the things that need data. Buy the SIM, open the account, download maps, save the lodge list, and send the itinerary home. Kathmandu and Pokhara are where both networks are a normal city service.

Villages on a road, or with a large strip of lodges, are more likely to see a signal than a camp above the trees. “More likely” is not a promise. The trail between those villages is often empty of signal for an hour or a day. A tea house in a deep valley can be quiet while the ridge above it is not, or the other way around.

Charge the phone when the lodge has power. Carry a small battery pack from the city. We are not quoting a charging fee, because lodges set their own.

The routes people ask about

Read these as how to think about the walk, not as a signal report. The route pages are the place for the days and the height.

• Everest Base Camp and Gokyo: The walk leaves the road at Lukla. Treat the upper trail, Gokyo’s side valley, and the viewpoints as places where a message may not leave. Download what you need before you fly, or in the last large village if data is actually working that day. Everest Base Camp
• Annapurna Base Camp: You start near Pokhara, where a SIM is ordinary. The high camp is not Pokhara. Do not assume the signal you had in the lower villages is still there. Annapurna Base Camp
• Poon Hill: A short walk above Ghorepani. A photograph from the viewpoint is not a promise of data. The city you started from is still the reliable place to download. Poon Hill
• Mardi Himal: A short ridge. The forest lower down and the high camp are different places. Ask the lodge, and do not count on a call from the viewpoint. Mardi Himal
• Langtang Valley: Once the road ends, the valley narrows. Treat the upper valley as somewhere a message may wait until you walk down. Langtang
• Manaslu Circuit: A restricted route over a high pass. The pass, and the days on either side, are not places to expect a signal. Agree with your guide how you will call for help before you leave the road. Manaslu Circuit
• Dolpo and other remote routes: This is where a SIM is least useful. Upper Dolpo and, in the same restricted group, Upper Mustang need the permit and a licensed guide named on our packing page. Leave the route with someone off the trail. A satellite device is a different product. We are not recommending a brand.

The shape of these walks is on the guide to the main treks.

Which choice fits the trip

There is no single best SIM. Match the days, and then check what the last town on your route is actually using.

• Cities only Kathmandu, Pokhara, a short valley. Either network. Ncell’s tourist pack is the straightforward airport purchase.
• A short trek from Pokhara Poon Hill or Mardi Himal, plus the cities. A Ncell tourist pack often matches the number of days. Still download the maps in Pokhara.
• Everest, Langtang, Manaslu, or Dolpo Do not choose from a slogan. If the phone can hold two SIMs, Nepal Telecom’s prepaid line is the inexpensive one people add for a remote trail, and Ncell remains the easy tourist plan. Test both in the last town with a road.
• You want data before you land Ncell sells a tourist eSIM from the page linked on its tourist SIM site. Nepal Telecom’s published eSIM steps are for an existing number, not a new visitor plan. More on that below.

The trek finder and the comparison use only treks we already publish. They do not know which mast is working.

How a visitor buys a SIM

Ncell’s tourist page says the physical tourist SIM is sold at Tribhuvan International Airport in Kathmandu, at Ncell Centres at major entry points and cities, and at authorized Ncell shops. Bring the original passport. The page says that is what you need to register and activate the SIM.

Ncell also says tourist eSIMs are sold online from the tourist eSIM platform linked on that same page. The plans are for non-Nepalese citizens only.

Nepal Telecom’s prepaid tariff is a normal prepaid SIM, not a product labelled “tourist”. The prepaid tariff page does not list an airport counter. Buy it at a Nepal Telecom centre, and do not assume a free SIM is waiting at arrivals. We did not find that offer on ntc.net.np.

Nepal Telecom also publishes a postal SIM. The page lists a SIM charge of NPR 90, a postal delivery charge of NPR 70, and a total of NPR 160. Delivery is inside Nepal, by Nepal Post, to an address you give. A passport is one of the documents the page accepts, next to a citizenship certificate. This is not the method for someone who lands and leaves for the hills the next morning. If you have no Nepal address, use a counter.

Passport, and registering the phone

For the Ncell tourist SIM, the operator’s own page asks for the original passport. A shop may also want a visa page or a photo. The photo is not what Ncell’s page requires. The passport is. Bring it.

The phone is a separate registration. Dial *#06# to see the IMEI. Nepal’s telecom regulator, NTA, runs the device register at mdms.nta.gov.np.

The MDMS bylaw says it generally does not apply to a phone that is only roaming on a foreign operator’s SIM. If you use a Nepal Telecom or Ncell SIM in a handset you brought with you, the same bylaw says an unregistered device used with a Nepali SIM is notified to register, and that service can be denied after 15 days from first detection. The individual form on the portal asks for a passport and for arrival evidence, described there as passport stamps or a boarding pass. Much of the form is in Nepali. The live page is the one to follow, not this paragraph. The bylaw text is the PDF MDMS Bylaw 2075. An older interim directive is not the document we are using. Rules and the form can change. Check the portal when you land.

Ncell tourist plans

These three plans are what Ncell’s tourist SIM page published when we checked it. Voice is all-net. Each plan includes 100 SMS. Prices are in Nepalese rupees. Confirm them on that page before you pay. Packs change.

• TouristPro Sprinter Unlimited data, unlimited all-net voice, 100 SMS, 7 days, NPR 595
• TouristPro Explorer Unlimited data, unlimited all-net voice, 100 SMS, 14 days, NPR 995
• TouristPro Voyager Unlimited data, unlimited all-net voice, 100 SMS, 28 days, NPR 1,995

The page says a fair-usage policy applies to unlimited data and calls. The FAQ then says the Sprinter is throttled after 10 GB “at 256 Mbps”, and the Explorer after 25 GB “at 256kbps”. Those units are not the same, and they are both printed on Ncell’s page. The FAQ does not state a threshold for the Voyager. Ask at the counter what happens after the allowance. We are not correcting their units, and we have not measured the speed.

A few other rules from the same FAQ. The plans are only for non-Nepalese citizens. If you are already on a tourist plan, you can buy another of the three tourist packs, not a different kind of pack. The plan expires from the time you activate it, not at midnight. After it ends, a top-up can pay for voice at pay-as-you-go rates, but data needs a new pack. Extra tourist packs are sold in the Ncell app, at a retailer, or by dialling *123#.

Nepal Telecom prepaid, and the data packs

We did not find a tourist unlimited plan on ntc.net.np. What is published is a prepaid SIM and a list of data packs.

On the prepaid tariff page, the SIM costs Re. 90 and includes talk-time worth Re. 10. The free resource listed with it is 40 minutes of voice, 20 SMS, and 300 MB of data. The page says the SIM cost includes ownership tax. A voice call on the Nepal Telecom network is Re. 1.5 a minute, and a call to another network is Re. 2 a minute. Pay-as-you-go data is Re. 1 per MB. A SIM change is Re. 50. The note at the bottom says charges are exclusive of taxes, so the call and per-megabyte figures are not the whole bill. A recharge card has its own validity: Re. 50 is listed as 25 days, Re. 100 as 55 days, Re. 200 as 130 days, Re. 500 as 330 days, and Re. 1,000 as 690 days. That is how long the recharge lasts, not how long a data pack lasts.

Data packs are a different table. Under “All Time Data Pack” on Nepal Telecom’s Monsoon Offer 2082 page, the prices are marked inclusive of taxes. The page is an offer page. Treat the list as current only until they change it.

• 5 GB 7 days, NPR 109
• 12 GB 7 days, NPR 199
• 10 GB 28 days on prepaid, 30 days on postpaid, NPR 299
• 20 GB 28 days on prepaid, 30 days on postpaid, NPR 399
• 30 GB 28 days on prepaid, 30 days on postpaid, NPR 499
• 55 GB 28 days on prepaid, 30 days on postpaid, NPR 899
• 100 GB 28 days on prepaid, 30 days on postpaid, NPR 999

Shorter packs are on the same table, including 1 GB for one day at NPR 30. There is also a separate unlimited list, with its own fair-use lines. Read the row you are buying. We are not copying the whole offer.

Nepal Telecom’s pack pages say to dial *1415# to subscribe. The short-code list calls *1415# the way to see the latest offers, *400# the balance check, and 1498 the mobile customer-support number. 1498 is the operator’s help line. It is not a mountain rescue number. Recurring “Namaste” packs renew if you have balance. A visitor who is about to fly home should not turn one on without reading that rule. A fixed data pack is the clearer buy.

A physical SIM or an eSIM

A physical SIM needs a phone with a SIM tray, and the phone must be unlocked. Ncell sells the tourist version at the airport and shops named above, and as an eSIM from the platform on its tourist page.

Nepal Telecom’s eSIM help page is a different product. It asks for an active Nepal Telecom number, a balance above Rs. 50, an updated profile, and a citizenship record, including a photo of you holding the citizenship card. If the citizenship check fails, the page says to visit a Nepal Telecom counter. We did not find a tourist eSIM for a new visitor on that page. If you need a line on the day you land, plan on a physical SIM unless Ncell’s tourist eSIM suits the phone.

An eSIM-only phone cannot take the physical card. Check that before you fly. You can also keep your home SIM for messages that arrive on your usual number, and use the Nepal line for data, if the phone allows both.

Will the phone you bring work

The phone has to be unlocked. A handset locked to a Japanese carrier, NTT Docomo, au, or SoftBank, will not take a Nepal SIM until the lock is removed. Do that before the flight. We are not claiming that every Japanese iPhone has a physical tray, or that every model supports the same bands.

Nepal Telecom publishes two 4G bands and a checker: LTE Band 3 at 1800 MHz, and LTE Band 20 at 800 MHz. The page is ntc.net.np/nt-4g-lte-bands. Dial *#06# and enter the TAC or the IMEI. That check is theirs, for their network.

Ncell’s tourist page does not publish a band list. We will not invent one. At the counter, ask them to seat the SIM and open a page before you leave the shop, if they will. If data does not start, ask them to set the APN. Do not rely on a setting copied from an old blog.

Wi-Fi calling and other extras are separate. Nepal Telecom has a VoWiFi page with its own device list. It is not something to count on in a lodge.

Recharging on the way

Buy the pack that covers the trek before you leave the last town with a proper shop. A high lodge may sell a recharge, and it may not.

On Ncell, the FAQ says further tourist packs are in the Ncell app, at a retailer, or by dialling *123#. After the pack expires, voice can be pay-as-you-go if you top up. Data needs a pack.

On Nepal Telecom, dial *1415# for the offer menu and *400# for the balance. A recharge card’s validity and a data pack’s validity are two different clocks. Look at both.

Prices in this article are the ones printed on the operator pages we linked. They are not a quote from Nepal Travel Guide, and they will move. The week you fly, open the page again.

Offline maps, and a real emergency plan

Save the map, the day’s route, and the lodge names while you are still in Kathmandu or Pokhara. A message app that only sends when it sees a network will sit there unsent. Do not find that out at a pass.

If someone is getting worse, the priority is getting down and getting help, not waiting for a bar of signal. The altitude note is about that illness. It is not medical advice. The policy you bought is what decides a helicopter, and only if the wording includes it. Carry the assistance number on paper, with the policy number.

Tell the guide, before the road ends, how you will ask for help if the phones are dead. On a restricted route that person is not optional. A SIM is not the plan.

Questions people ask

Can I buy a SIM at Kathmandu airport? Ncell says its tourist SIMs are sold at Tribhuvan International Airport. Nepal Telecom’s tariff page does not say the same about a tourist counter. Do not count on a free NTC SIM. We did not find that on the official site.

Is the Ncell tourist plan only for visitors? Yes. Ncell’s FAQ says the tourist plans are only for non-Nepalese citizens.

Does unlimited mean full speed the whole time? No. Ncell says a fair-usage policy applies, and its FAQ gives a throttle after 10 GB on the Sprinter and after 25 GB on the Explorer. The units on that FAQ do not match each other, and the Voyager’s threshold is not stated. Ask before you pay.

When does the Ncell pack end? From the time you activate it, not at midnight.

Can I add data later? On a Ncell tourist plan, another tourist pack, from the app, a shop, or *123#. Data does not continue as pay-as-you-go after the pack ends. Voice can, if you top up.

Does Nepal Telecom sell a tourist unlimited SIM? We did not find one. The published prepaid SIM is Re. 90, and data is a pack you add, or Re. 1 per MB before tax.

Will a Japanese phone work? Only if it is unlocked, and only if it can use the network. Check Nepal Telecom’s band tool for their 4G. Ask Ncell to test the SIM in the shop. An eSIM-only phone needs Ncell’s tourist eSIM, not a plastic card.

Is there a signal at Everest Base Camp, Gokyo, or Annapurna Base Camp? We will not say yes or no. Neither operator’s page we used gives that map. Assume you may have none, and be pleased if a village has it.

Is the SIM enough in an emergency? No. Download what you need, leave the route with someone, and keep the insurer’s number on paper.

Before you fly

• The phone is unlocked. A Japanese carrier lock is removed before the flight
• You know whether it has a SIM tray, an eSIM, or both
• The passport is in your hand, not in the bag you checked
• You have opened Ncell’s tourist page and Nepal Telecom’s tariff page the week you travel
• Maps and the lodge names are saved offline
• The insurer’s number is on paper, and the policy matches the trek
• Someone at home has the route and the dates
• A small battery pack is charged in the city
• On a remote route, you will ask in the last town which network the lodges actually see
• You are not treating the SIM as the rescue plan

Plan the walk first

Choose the route before you choose the SIM. The tools below use only treks we publish. They do not sell a SIM, and they do not add a SIM price to the budget. Add the pack yourself once you have checked the operator’s page.

If you want help with the days, write to us and say where you want to walk. We can help you plan the trip. The SIM, and whether a signal is there on the day, stays with the operator and the mountain.

What we checked, and what we did not. Ncell’s prices, the airport sale, the passport rule, the eSIM, and the throttle sentence are from Ncell’s tourist SIM page. Nepal Telecom’s SIM price and call rates are from its prepaid tariff page. The data-pack table is the “All Time Data Pack” list on its Monsoon Offer 2082 page, so it can change. The 15-day line is from the NTA MDMS bylaw, not from a shop. We did not use a third-party coverage map, and we are not guaranteeing a signal on any trail.