Despite an increasing number of Internet users, Interent subscriber base has gone down by 18 percent, mostly because services offered through dial-up and cable have nosedived.[break]
According to latest statistics provided by Nepal Telecommunication Authority (NTA), the number of Internet users under different ISPs is 54,967 by mid-August 2011 whereas the number was 65,000 by mid-August 2010.
Although the number of GPRS users has gone up significantly, ISP officials opine that most of the users limit their Internet activities to mobile browsing and are not active users.
The number of ADSL users during this period has gone up by 33 percent. ADSL users till mid-August 2010 were 49,406 which has reached 74,102 in a year. Similarly, Internet users of NT and UTL under CDMA/EVDO have gone up by 33 percent. At present, there are more than 155,000 subscribers who are surfing Internet under this technology.
President of Internet Service Providers´ Association of Nepal said, “Although the number of individual customers might have come down overall, the business is up as ISPs are consolidating their presence among corporate clinets.” He further said that considering the customer base of top two ISPs - Broadlink and Worldlink - the customer base has doubled in a year.
Broadlink - largest ISP in wireless services - was able to add 18,500 customers in a year. Broadlink Managing Director Binod Timilsina said the company is adding 1,500-2,000 new customers every month.
Similarly, Worldlink claimed to be have around 20,000 customers till October and is adding 300 customers on average every month. Public Relations Director of Worldlink Pawan Shakya said the major reason for the declining customer base of some ISPs is obsolete technology compared to ADSL which is provided by the state-owned Nepal Telecom (NT) only. “Individual users still prefer ADSL to other services and we still don´t have permission to operate that service,” Shakya added.
Timilsina of Broadlink said that the subscriber base of ADSL users would have been higher, if private ISPs were allowed to use the same technology. A three-year old dispute between ISP and NT regarding ADSL is still going on and the case is at the appellate committee.
Bohara said, “There is no doubt that after having ADSL, subscribers will increase but at the same time the companies providing better services are really doing well and small hindrances are not impacting their growth.”
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