Nepal still lags behind in ICT development
Kathmandu:
International Telecommunication Union (ITU) – the UN specialised agency — has ranked Nepal at 131st position in the global Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Price Basket popularly known as ICT Price Basket, according to its recently published research report ‘Measuring the Information Society 2011’.
ICT Price Basket (IPB) that combines the average cost of fixed telephone, mobile cellular, and fixed broadband Internet services across 165 economies is a global ICT index. The ITU report also revealed that Nepal stands at the bottom of the South Asian countries ranking on affordability of communication services. Maldives tops the list among South Asian countries on affordability of ICT services.
In the ICT Price Basket, Maldives, Sri Lanka, Bhutan, India, Pakistan and Bangladesh are ranked 54th, 63rd, 79th, 87th, 109th, and 120th respectively.
All these countries are ahead of Nepal.
However, Nepal’s cost of Information and Communication Technology has dropped to score 26.4 from 28.9 in 2008. In the South Asian region, the ICT Price Basket index of Maldives, Sri Lanka, Bhutan, India, Pakistan and Bangladesh stands at 1.9, 2.4, 3.6, 4.1, 8.0 and 12.7, respectively.
The union has categorised three sub-baskets to evaluate the ICT Price Basket – the fixed-telephone sub-basket, mobile-cellular telephony sub-basket and fixed-broadband internet sub-basket.
Nepal stands at 137th position in the fixed-telephone sub-basket, 117th on mobile-cellular sub-basket and 139th on fixed-broadband sub-index sub-basket, according to the report that has said that the developing countries are seemed to tend to ‘low-end’ market segment. “In developing countries, large numbers of mobile operators are competing for low-income customers by decreasing mobile-cellular tariffs and offering cheaper, more affordable handsets to seize low-end market segment.”
The indicator measures price availability to the public of the fixed and mobile telephony and fixed broadband Internet.
The Price of ICT services in different countries depends on a number of factors including the level and degree of competition, different measures of regulatory intervention, market size, operators’ costs for providing services and profit margins, the International Telecommunication Union explained.
Globally, telecommunication and Internet services are becoming more affordable, it said, adding that the price of ICT services dropped by 18 per cent globally between 2008 and 2010, while broadband Internet prices dropped by 50 per cent between 2008 and 2010.
Source: THT
International Telecommunication Union (ITU) – the UN specialised agency — has ranked Nepal at 131st position in the global Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Price Basket popularly known as ICT Price Basket, according to its recently published research report ‘Measuring the Information Society 2011’.
ICT Price Basket (IPB) that combines the average cost of fixed telephone, mobile cellular, and fixed broadband Internet services across 165 economies is a global ICT index. The ITU report also revealed that Nepal stands at the bottom of the South Asian countries ranking on affordability of communication services. Maldives tops the list among South Asian countries on affordability of ICT services.
In the ICT Price Basket, Maldives, Sri Lanka, Bhutan, India, Pakistan and Bangladesh are ranked 54th, 63rd, 79th, 87th, 109th, and 120th respectively.
All these countries are ahead of Nepal.
However, Nepal’s cost of Information and Communication Technology has dropped to score 26.4 from 28.9 in 2008. In the South Asian region, the ICT Price Basket index of Maldives, Sri Lanka, Bhutan, India, Pakistan and Bangladesh stands at 1.9, 2.4, 3.6, 4.1, 8.0 and 12.7, respectively.
The union has categorised three sub-baskets to evaluate the ICT Price Basket – the fixed-telephone sub-basket, mobile-cellular telephony sub-basket and fixed-broadband internet sub-basket.
Nepal stands at 137th position in the fixed-telephone sub-basket, 117th on mobile-cellular sub-basket and 139th on fixed-broadband sub-index sub-basket, according to the report that has said that the developing countries are seemed to tend to ‘low-end’ market segment. “In developing countries, large numbers of mobile operators are competing for low-income customers by decreasing mobile-cellular tariffs and offering cheaper, more affordable handsets to seize low-end market segment.”
The indicator measures price availability to the public of the fixed and mobile telephony and fixed broadband Internet.
The Price of ICT services in different countries depends on a number of factors including the level and degree of competition, different measures of regulatory intervention, market size, operators’ costs for providing services and profit margins, the International Telecommunication Union explained.
Globally, telecommunication and Internet services are becoming more affordable, it said, adding that the price of ICT services dropped by 18 per cent globally between 2008 and 2010, while broadband Internet prices dropped by 50 per cent between 2008 and 2010.
Source: THT
