Internet base increases to 7.2 million

The internet user base grew to 7.20 million in mid-September, up from 7.14 million in mid-August.

The internet penetration rate stood at 27.18 per cent, up from 26.93 per cent a month earlier, figures from the Nepal Telecommunications Authority (NTA) show.

Ncell saw its mobile internet base – GPRS, Edge,WCDMA – slip to 3.53 million from 3.55 million a month earlier while UTL's EV-DO base grew to 98,151 from 97,104 in August.

Nepal Telecom's dial-up base go down to 4,794 from 4,804 but its ADSL base grew to 116,990 from 115,927 a month earlier.

The company also served 3.22 million mobile internet subscribers, up from 3.14 million, and 136,573 EV-DO subscribers, the same as the company reported in the previous month. Nepal Telecom also had 3,689 customers for its new Wimax service, up from 3,177 in August. Other ISPs served 89,219 internet customers, up from 88,568 a month earlier, the regulator added.

Likewise, the country has 847,008 fixed telephony users in mid-September, down from 847,062 in mid-August. The total includes 648,181 PSTN subscribers and 198,827 WLL telephony users.

Nepal Telecom led with 642,353 PSTN customers, down from 642,754 a month earlier, while STM Telecom Sanchar's base remained constant at 5,230 customers, it revealed. "Smart had 598 PSTN public phone centres."
However, the telephone penetration rate reached to 82.49 per cent as of mid September as some 21.85 million Nepalis have access to telecom services out of the total population of 26.4 million.