SIM & Internet

A Nepali SIM takes about fifteen minutes and needs two things: your passport and a valid visa. Get one in the first day or two, because almost everything that follows - bank verification codes, landlords returning calls, ride apps, delivery - assumes a local number. Roaming will keep you reachable and will not get you a bank account.

For the networks themselves, coverage and home fibre packages, telecom and internet covers the ground. This page covers the paperwork and the traps specific to being a non-citizen.

What you need

• Passport, original plus a photocopy
• Valid visa - the entry stamp or sticker in your passport
• One passport-sized photograph
• A completed registration form, filled in at the counter

Registration is mandatory and done at the point of sale. Buy from an official operator shop, an authorised retailer or the counters at Tribhuvan International Airport on arrival. Do not buy a pre-registered SIM from a street vendor - it is registered to somebody else, which makes it theirs rather than yours and causes problems you cannot fix later.

Which network

The two operators are Nepal Telecom and Ncell. The short version for a new arrival: Ncell generally performs better in Kathmandu and Pokhara, Nepal Telecom reaches further into the hills and rural districts.

If you will stay in the cities, either works. If you will travel, trek or work outside the valley, carry both - a second SIM costs very little and removes an entire category of problem.

Tourist and resident

There is no separate "tourist SIM" product in the way some countries have one. The same prepaid SIM is sold to everybody; what differs is the document you register it against and therefore how long it remains valid.

Your SIM registration is tied to the visa you presented. When your visa changes - an extension, a conversion to a non-tourist category - update the registration at an operator shop rather than discovering the problem when the line stops working. It is a counter visit, not a reapplication.

At a glance

	What a foreigner needs
Prepaid SIM	Passport, visa, one photograph, at an official outlet
Topping up	Operator app, digital wallet, or any shop with the board
Home fibre	Passport and visa, in your own name, few days to install
Postpaid account	Local address and more documents - rarely worth it under a year
After a visa change	Update the SIM registration at an operator shop

Data and topping up

Data is inexpensive and sold in packs rather than contracts. Top up through the operator's own app, a digital wallet once you have one, or at any small shop displaying the operator's board - the last being how most of the country does it, and the easiest before you have a bank account.

Prepaid is the normal arrangement. Postpaid accounts generally require a local address and more documentation, and are rarely worth the trouble for a stay of less than a year.

Home internet

Fibre is good in the cities and installed within a few days of ordering. The main providers are WorldLink, Vianet, Subisu and Classic Tech, with regional operators elsewhere.

Two things matter for a foreign resident. Ask which provider serves your building before you order, because fibre is laid building by building and a neighbour's excellent service says nothing about yours. And connections go in your name with your passport and visa, so the account - and the responsibility for a contract paid several months ahead - is yours, not the landlord's.

Most packages are sold in three, six or twelve-month blocks at a discount. If your visa runs out before the package does, you have paid for months you cannot use. Match the term to your stay.

Calling home

Nobody uses international calling cards here. Viber is the default messaging app in Nepal, more widely held than WhatsApp and used for everything including reaching businesses; WhatsApp is common among foreign residents. Calls over data cost nothing beyond the data, which makes roaming plans and international minutes largely pointless.

Save your landlord, your local shop and anyone you will deal with on Viber. A message gets an answer the same day where a phone call rings out.

Roaming for the first hours

Keep your home SIM active for the journey and the first night - you will want a map and a taxi before any shop is open. Then switch. Roaming data is expensive enough that a week of it costs more than months of a local pack.

If your phone supports eSIM, a regional travel eSIM bought before departure covers the airport-to-hotel gap neatly. It does not replace a physical Nepali SIM, because the registered local number is what banks, landlords and delivery services need.

Where this goes wrong

• Buying a SIM registered to somebody else. It is not yours and cannot be transferred.
• Not updating the registration after a visa change. The line stops and you find out at the worst moment.
• Paying twelve months of fibre upfront on a six-month visa.
• Relying on roaming for the first week. Banks verify by SMS to a Nepali number, so the SIM gates everything else.
• One network only, then leaving the valley. The second SIM is the cheapest insurance available.

Where to go next

Moving to Nepal puts this in the right place in the arrival sequence - SIM before bank account, always. For the account itself, banking and finance.