Nepal Telecom (NTC) has moved Huawei to the price bid stage for its new convergent real-time billing system after the Chinese firm cleared the technical evaluation phase. The state-owned operator announced that Huawei’s price bid will be opened on September 15, 2025.
NTC launched the tender in March for the supply, installation, and commissioning of a Convergent Real-Time Billing (CRTB) and Customer Support (CS) system on a virtualized platform. Huawei and Whale Cloud submitted proposals, but only Huawei advanced following the technical review.
The development comes amid scrutiny after Nepal’s Supreme Court earlier advised NTC to prevent situations where billing system vendors might access subscribers’ personal data. Critics also point out the risks of “vendor lock,” as Huawei already manages NTC’s core network infrastructure.
Currently, NTC relies on a legacy billing system from Asia Info, which has repeatedly caused technical disruptions and customer inconvenience. In July 2025, billing-related issues led to 4G and VoLTE outages. Several corruption cases tied to the repair and maintenance of the existing system are also under investigation.
The upcoming CRTB system is expected to replace NTC’s outdated infrastructure, improve service reliability, and resolve long-standing network and billing challenges.
