Mobile penetration reaches 85 per cent
KATHMANDU:
Out of every 100 inhabitants of the country, 15 are yet to own a mobile phone. Nepal Telecommunications Authority (NTA)’s Management Information System (MIS) states that the country’s mobile service penetration rate touched 85.58 per cent by the first quarter (mid-July to mid-October) of the current fiscal year.
This means of the total population 26.49 million (according to National Census 2011) in the country, 22.67 million people have subscribed for mobile phone service, the major voice telephony service. NTA officials said that the penetration rate is set based on the information provided by the telecom companies regarding their user base.
With heavy contribution of mobile segment, total penetration rate of voice service has reached 95.58 per cent in the review period. “As majority of customers have already subscribed to the service, telecom companies’ new users intake has also slowed down,” the official said. Telecom companies have attracted 622,422 customers to buy their mobile service in the first quarter of this fiscal.
In the same period of the last fiscal year 2013-14, a total of 658,521 new subscribers were added by the operators. As per the MIS report, Ncell boasts of 12.06 million mobile subscribers, while the state-owned Nepal Telecom (NT) has 10.06 million subscribers for its GSM and CDMA mobile services.
Even as there is rise in penetration rate in the mobile service segment, there is decline in customers using landline phones. As a result, the penetration rate of fixed phone came down to 3.14 per cent from 3.20 per cent in the same period of last fiscal year.
According to the MIS, penetration of fixed lines went down because of decline in user base of United Telecom Limited (UTL), STM Telecom Sanchar and Nepal Satellite Telecom.
NTA records show that there are 834,137 landline users. UTL’s subscribers in fixed phone category went down by over 25,000 users, while STM Telecom that has been providing the service in VSAT-based technology witnessed fall by 43 per cent in its user base to 2,940 users over the past one year.
Meanwhile, the data penetration rate has reached 35.28 per cent, with total subscriber base standing at 9.34 million.
Of the total internet users, 8.89 million customers have subscribed to mobile data services, including GPRS, EDGE and 3G. Remaining are the users of dial-up, optical fibre, cable modem, WiMax and EVDO.
In data service, NT has covered the major market share of 54 per cent, followed by Ncell at 44 per cent. UTL and internet service providers share the remaining two per cent market share with combined 165,474 users.
Source: THT
