Customers of NT, the largest telecom company in Nepal, are investing less on calls these days due to heavy reduction in tariff rates over the years. In the last four years, maximum per minute call rates on mobile phone have come down to Rs 2 (excluding taxes) from Rs 3.50.
“On top of that one family now has three or four cell phone subscribers and most of them only use the phones to receive calls,” Surendra Prasad Thikey, spokesperson of NT told myrepublica.com.
However, the reduction in the number of per person calls has not affected the income of the company. In the last fiscal year, the annual revenue of NT soared by 21 percent to Rs 17.88 billion. Mobile phone service contributed Rs 8.22 billion to the total revenue of NT last year. The company’s net profit stood at Rs 7.94 billion in the same period, up 40 percent from last year. It plans to generate a net profit of Rs 10.13 billion in the current fiscal year.
NT is the first telco to introduce both basic and cell phone service in Nepal and holds command over 60 percent of the mobile phone users in the country. The company provides both postpaid and prepaid mobile phone services operating on GSM and CDMA technologies. Today, almost 80 percent of the total of 3.5 million customers of NT comprises cell phone users.
NT FACTS
| GSM | As of mid-July 08 | As of mid-Feb 09 | |
| Post-paid subscribers | 102,446 | 102,902 | |
| Pre-paid subscribers | 1,614,176 | 2,254,222 | |
| 3G subscribers | 608 | 664 | |
| CDMA | As of mid-July 08 | As of mid-Feb 09 |
| Fixed C-phone & post-paid subscribers | 44,395 | 45,892 |
| CDMA pre-paid subscribers | 305,631 | 484,726 |
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