Telecom operators added 4.11m new subscribers in 2011-12
KATHMANDU, SEP 12 -
Telecom operators added more than 4 million new subscriptions in the last fiscal year, pushing Nepal’s tele-density up to 64.91 percent.
The country’s total telecom subscriber base has reached 17.28 million as of the last fiscal year (mid-July 2011 to mid-July 2012) supported by the growth in the number of cell phone users, according to Nepal Telecommunications Authority (NTA) statistics.
The NTA report shows six operators added a total of 4.11 million new users in mobile, fixed line, limited mobility and satellite phone services in 2011-12. However, the figure is 2.83 percent less than the previous year’s 4.23 million new users.
NTA officials said the delay in the assignment of microwave frequencies to Ncell and Smart Telecom and limited SIM card distribution by Nepal Telecom were some of the factors that slowed down the subscriber growth. After a seven-month delay, Ncell and Smart have recently been assigned microwave frequency, an important spectrum for service area expansion.
“We concentrated more on quality than adding subscribers,” said Sanju Koirala, corporate communications manager at Ncell. She added that the company suffered much due to the lack of spot frequency and there were no new schemes for over six months.
Two mobile service operators — Nepal Telecom and Ncell — added 3.73 million new mobile users, pushing the number of mobile phone users up to 15.33 million.
Mobile users accounted for 57.60 percent in the total tele-density. Similarly, fixed line service is available to 3.15 percent and satellite phone and limited mobility service to 4.15 percent of national population of 26.62 million.
Over the review period, Ncell attracted 2.71 million new users, while Nepal Telecom added 1.01 million in its services-mobile and fixed line. After the increment in its subscriber base, Ncell has become the largest telecom operator enjoying 48 percent market share, whereas Nepal Telecom’s market share stands at 45 percent. As of fiscal year 2010-11, Nepal Telecom was the major player, covering 51 percent of the market.
A senior official at Nepal Telecom said low capacity for distribution of new SIM cards, delay in implementation of 2 million IP-CDMA lines and remarkable growth in tele-density were the main reasons behind the slow progress. “We hardly completed any project on time due to the lengthy decision making and procurement processes,” said the official, adding such a trend was affecting the operator’s long-term strategy.
Nepal Telecom had called a global tender for 10 million mobile lines in August last year. It has so far not been able to sign an agreement for package ‘A’ (5.2 million new lines) with the bidding contractors denying to `assume the contract, citing low costs.
Huawei Technologies is undertaking Nepal Telecom’s 4.8 million mobile lines, Package ‘B’ of the 10 million line project.
Operator 2011-12 2010-11 2009-10
Nepal Telecom 7.75 million 6.74 million 5.46 million
Ncell 8.33 million 5.61 million 2.94 million
United Telecom Limited 637,304 573,629 460,800
Smart Telecom 395,736 128,398 484
Nepal Satellite Telecom 146,319 91,435 54,739
STM Telecom 5,347 5,245 4,841
Source: The Kathmandu Post
