Similarly, Colors and Intex have also planned to launch CDMA supporting smartphones to tap the growing market.

“Although, CDMA phones have been available in the bar phones category, we saw a lack of CDMA supporting smartphones. So we launched the phone with Android supporting system,” said Roshan Neupane, marketing manager of Call Mobility, the authorised distributor of Huawei phones in Nepal.

The company recently launched the C8816D smartphone that runs on Android Kitkat 4.3 operating system. Priced at Rs16,500, the phone comes with a 5-inch screen display and features a 1.2 GHz quad core processor, 1 GB RAM, 4 GB internal storage and 2,000 mAh battery. The phone sports an 8 MP rear and 2 MP front camera. It also supports 3G and EVIDEO.

“We hope that this phone will benefit people who travel frequently across the country,” said Neupane, adding that they were also planning to roll out various offers of data packages with local telecommunication operators.

Samsung’s authorised distributor Integrated Mobility Solutions (IMS) has set a sales target of 90,000 units of the Galaxy Ace 4 within 18 months. Deepak Malhotra, president of IMS said, “Many people are using CDMA service in many parts of the country, but they have not been able to use it up to the optimum level. So we requested Samsung to launch the device in Nepal and other emerging markets,” he added.

Priced at Rs12,000, the phone comes with a 4-inch WVGA TFT screen and runs on Android Kitkat operating system. The Galaxy Ace 4 features a 1.2 GHz dual core processor, 512 MB RAM, 4 GB internal storage, 3 MP rear camera and VGA front camera. Samsung has offered Nepal Telecom’s RUIM card worth Rs200, free talk time worth Rs100 and a data package of Rs300 per month for a year with purchase of the Galaxy Ace 4. Teletalk, which offers four models of CDMA bar phones, is planning to launch an Android CDMA phone. “As many people are going for CDMA for net surfing, our product department is researching to launch a new smartphone with Android OS,” said Niru Dhougoda, senior marketing executive at Teletalk.

“These phones will be targeted at rural areas and professionals who frequently visit many places across the country.” According to Nepal Telecom, 1.32 million people were using CDMA voice service while there were 136,573 subscribers who used CDMA data service as of December-January of this fiscal year.

“There is a big gap between CDMA voice and data users. So there is great potential for mobile manufacturers if they come up with CDMA smartphones,” said Dilli Adhikari, joint spokesperson of Nepal Telecom.