KATHMANDU: The number of new customers buying telephone services has come down. Nepal Telecommunications Authority (NTA) has said that the service subscription growth rate declined by 8.34 percentage points in the last fiscal year 2013-14.
The total number of users of telecom services based on SIMs subscribed or fixed-lines extended has reached 24.55 million. With this penetration rate of telephone service of the country touched 92.68 per cent by the end of last fiscal.
As per the National Census Report 2011, the country has a total population of 26.49 million. NTA officials said that the low response of customers regarding buying new telecom services was a natural phenomenon with the penetration rate growing heavily in the last few years.
Telecom companies added 3.22 million customers, down from 4.05 million customers in the previous fiscal year 2012-13. Nepal Telecom (NT) has added 1.73 million customers in its service network, while Ncell has added 1.4 million subscribers. However, United Telecom Ltd (UTL)’s customer base declined by 210,500,
according to NTA.
There has been an addition of 3.12 million customers in the cellular mobile service, the major voice service and with this the penetration rate reached 83.23 per cent. “After the heavy growth of voice penetration in the previous years, it is expected that now there will be more demand for data service,” said Arjun Ghimire, deputy director at NTA. As per him, telecom companies too have already started focusing on providing data services.
The NTA data, compiled based on the information provided by telecom companies and internet service providers (ISPs), show that there are 8.78 million data customers. In the last two fiscal years, service providers have added 1.87 million customers each year and the internet penetration rate has reached 33.15 per cent.
In the data segment, NT which has multiple voice and data services, is leading the market with 53 per cent market share. It has 4.7 million internet users against 3.9 million customers of Ncell. Recently, it also started new high speed data service — fiber to the home — which claims of providing connectivity of up to 100 mbps besides voice service through the same cable.
Telecom companies say that with the voice segment gradually becoming a secondary service with the entry of high-speed internet services, the market will see more priority in data services in the coming days. Of the total data service users, around 95 per cent are mobile data (GPRS, EDGE and 3G) users of NT and Ncell.
Besides telecom companies, other ISPs have also witnessed growth in customers. They roped in 20,333 customers in the last fiscal, taking their service user base to 106,154. But, UTL witnessed a decline in its customer base by 40.69 per cent to 56,744. By the end of fiscal year 2012-13, UTL had a total of 95,675 subscribers.
- See more at: http://thehimalayantimes.com/fullNews.php?headline=Telephone+subscriber+growth+rate+declines&NewsID=426863#sthash.g0HHUTlN.dpufThe total number of users of telecom services based on SIMs subscribed or fixed-lines extended has reached 24.55 million. With this penetration rate of telephone service of the country touched 92.68 per cent by the end of last fiscal.
As per the National Census Report 2011, the country has a total population of 26.49 million. NTA officials said that the low response of customers regarding buying new telecom services was a natural phenomenon with the penetration rate growing heavily in the last few years.
Telecom companies added 3.22 million customers, down from 4.05 million customers in the previous fiscal year 2012-13. Nepal Telecom (NT) has added 1.73 million customers in its service network, while Ncell has added 1.4 million subscribers. However, United Telecom Ltd (UTL)’s customer base declined by 210,500,
according to NTA.
There has been an addition of 3.12 million customers in the cellular mobile service, the major voice service and with this the penetration rate reached 83.23 per cent. “After the heavy growth of voice penetration in the previous years, it is expected that now there will be more demand for data service,” said Arjun Ghimire, deputy director at NTA. As per him, telecom companies too have already started focusing on providing data services.
The NTA data, compiled based on the information provided by telecom companies and internet service providers (ISPs), show that there are 8.78 million data customers. In the last two fiscal years, service providers have added 1.87 million customers each year and the internet penetration rate has reached 33.15 per cent.
In the data segment, NT which has multiple voice and data services, is leading the market with 53 per cent market share. It has 4.7 million internet users against 3.9 million customers of Ncell. Recently, it also started new high speed data service — fiber to the home — which claims of providing connectivity of up to 100 mbps besides voice service through the same cable.
Telecom companies say that with the voice segment gradually becoming a secondary service with the entry of high-speed internet services, the market will see more priority in data services in the coming days. Of the total data service users, around 95 per cent are mobile data (GPRS, EDGE and 3G) users of NT and Ncell.
Besides telecom companies, other ISPs have also witnessed growth in customers. They roped in 20,333 customers in the last fiscal, taking their service user base to 106,154. But, UTL witnessed a decline in its customer base by 40.69 per cent to 56,744. By the end of fiscal year 2012-13, UTL had a total of 95,675 subscribers.
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