The number of subscriptions to telecoms services in Nepal exceeded the country’s population for the first time in April, according to new statistics from the Nepal Telecommunications Authority (NTA).
The regulator’s figures for the month of Chaitra – which in Western calendar terms runs until 13 April this year – show that the country is home to 26.49 million people and 26.87 million telecoms connections.
The lion’s share are, of course, mobile subscriptions; Nepal’s two mobile operators between them had 23.95 million connections, putting mobile penetration at 90.4%.
TeliaSonera-owned NCell leads the market, just, with 12.27 million customers and a market share of 51%. Nepal Telecom serves the remainder; it has 10.45 million GSM customers and 1.23 million CDMA customers.
There are also a number of other providers offering w ireless services via satellite and land mobile systems, including United Telecom, which is owned by a number of local and Indian players including MTNL and Tata; STM Telecom’s Gramintel; Nepal Satellite Telecom; and Smart Telecom’s Smart Cell.
The Nepalese market is growing rapidly.
Last year’s report at the same date showed overall teledensity of 88.5% and mobile penetration of 79.1%.
Over the past year GSM and CDMA mobile subscriptions have grown by 2.99 million.
