3G speed in Namche Bazaar

I didn’t really need a 3G sim card at any time during our trek in Himalayas, because there was always wifi available to check email once every couple of days and I did not want to be online any more often. However, I was curious how fast the 3G speeds are up there. On the way down, when we stopped for a night in Namche Bazaar, I walked into a telecom distributor store and got a 3G sim card. They did not have nano sims, so they had to cut the micro sim to fit my iPhone SE. The guy at the store borrowed the cutter from someone else and in about 30 minutes after walking into the store I had a connected 3G sim card. Here is the result of the speed test with Ookla’s Speedtest app. As you can see it is almost 3Mbps up and 1.5Mbps down. Granted though, this is the speed to a server in Kathmandu.

The 3G speed was much faster than any of the WiFi hot spots in Namche, including our lodge (Sakura Lodge).

Here is the speed of free wifi at Sherpa Barista coffee shop and bakery:

And this is the speed of WiFi in the lodge where it costs 500 rupees for the night:

Even though Ookla shows 440Kbps down and 190 Kbps up, the real speed must be much slower, because I could not upload even a single photo.