Nepal Telecom has postponed its upcoming 5G trials due to a lack of 5G compatible devices in the country.

According to a local media outlet Kathmandu Post, the operator postponed its 5G trials by several weeks.

Trials were due to be conducted in the Sundhara and Babarmahal districts of Kathmandu on January 1.

However, only a limited amount of devices are suitable for the trial to support 5G using the 2.6GHz band frequencies allocated by the authorities.

“We found that only a small number of mobile sets operate 5G in 2.6GHz frequency in the local market,” said Shobhan Adhikari, spokesperson of Nepal Telecom.

Tests are expected to take place during the next two to three weeks adds Adhikari, as Nepal Telecom explores its alternative 5G models for testing.

Nepal Telecom serves 7.13 million customers with its 3G service and over 11.5 million with its 4G network.

Although 5G is seen as pivotal for future smartphone use on the consumer side, the network is also anticipated to play a pivotal role in the advancement of IoT, with 5G providing the faster data-transfer speeds required for IoT devices to thrive.