9.2 million Ncell customers carry smartphones

First quarter report of Ncell released by its main investor Malaysian company Axiata shows that people carrying smartphone is increasing sharply in Nepal and the figure reached around 9.2 million. As per the report, 56% customers of Ncell are using smartphone. Ncell has 16.4 million customers. As per the recent Q1 report, compared to smartphone penetration of 44% in the Q1 last year, the penetration rate this year has increased by 12 percentage point. Smartphone penetration in Ncell was at 52% in Q4 2017. The number of data users is also increasing significantly.


As per the report, 46% Ncell users use data. The company has expanded its 4G service in 21 cities across the country making the service accessible to more than 15% of total population. Similarly, 3G service of Ncell is accessible to 54% population. For data use growing, the contribution of data income in total revenue of the company has also gone up. In the Q1 last year, the contribution of data in total income was at 17%, which in Q1 this year has reached 22%. Ncell has earned a total revenue of NPR 14.26 billion in the Q1 this year compared to NPR 13.67 billion of the same period of the last year.