Nepal Telecom’s data market share rises to 46 percent

KATHMANDU, JUL 28 -Nepal Telecom ’s market share in the data segment has increased by 5 percentage points in the one year period between mid-June 2012 to mid-June 2013, supported mainly by the growth in the number of users of its GPRS, WiMax and ADSL services. Ncell, however, remains the leader in the segment.

NT added 1.15 million new data users in the review period to take its data users’ tally to 3.1 million, according to the latest Management Information System report released by the Nepal Telecom munications Authority (NTA). With this, NT’s share in the domestic data market has increased to 46 percent from 41 percent.

Ncell data market share fell to 51 percent from 57 percent a year ago. It has 3.4 million users of its GPRS, 3G and Ncell Connect services in it GSM network. United Telecom Limited’s data market share stood at 2 percent with 92,817 users, while ISPs hold 1 percent data market share with 85,817 users.

NT attributed the growth in its data segment to increased subscription of GPRS, WiMax broadband and ADSL services. The company also offers other data services like dial-up in landline network, 3G in GSM network and EVDO in CDMA network. “The main factor for the growth in our data user numbers is our cheaper service,” said Surendra Prasad Thike, deputy managing director of NT.


NT offers GPRS and 3G data services at Rs 1 per MB and plans to further slash the price to 50 paisa per MB. The company recently launched the Sky Pro service in it CDMA segment which provides data service at 50 paisa per MB. The demand for data service has been increasing tremendously due to the availability of affordable smartphones in the local market and expanding service networks of telecom companies.

Until mid-June 2013, the data penetration rate has reached 25.82 percent of the total population. With the demand booming, telecom companies and internet service providers are engaged in intense competition to attract customers by launching attractive schemes.

Milan Sharma, corporate communications expert of Ncell, said its data service offers mobile internet at 29 Paisa per MB. “We have need-based packages for different segment of customers,” he said.

During the review period, Ncell added around 700,000 data users. A recent report of TeliaSonera, Ncell’s parent company, said Ncell’s income from the data segment increased

by a whopping 94 percent in the first half of 2013. In the total revenue of Ncell, income from data service contributes 6 percent.

Meanwhile, Ncell’s market share in voice telephony reached 50 percent by Mid-June 2013. Of the country’s total telecom subscriber base of 20.89 million, Ncell has 10.34 million users, according to the NTA.

The number of NT’s subscribers touched 8.96 million, whereas Smart Telecom has become third largest telecom company with 713,900 customers. United Telecom Limited, Nepal Satellite Telecom and CG Communications have 709,834, 149,698 and 5,385 users, respectively.