Mobile phone and internet users in Nepal witness 6pc decline within a month

KATHMANDU: Internet User Count Drops by Over 26,000 in One Month, Reflects Economic Factors and Migration Trends

In a recent report by the Nepal Telecommunication Authority (NTA), it has been noted that the number of internet users experienced a significant decline during mid-May as compared to mid-April.

During the middle of April, the total count of internet subscribers, encompassing a variety of service providers such as wireless, cable, and fiber, stood at 2,673,471.

However, as of mid-May, this figure had dwindled to 2,647,379, marking a noticeable reduction.

Among the service providers, Worldlink witnessed the most substantial decrease in its customer base. In mid-April, Worldlink boasted 771,000 users, which had dwindled to 752,000 by that month’s midpoint.

Dish Home Internet also observed a drop of 11,022 users, resulting in a new count of 229,000 users. Nepal Telecom’s internet user count decreased by 1,424, reaching a total of 287,190.

The realm of mobile phone users didn’t remain unscathed either, experiencing a decline of nearly 6%. In mid-April, the cumulative mobile phone users tallied up to 35,891,719. However, by mid-May, this number had decreased by a staggering 2,054,000.

This brought the mid-May total of mobile phone users to 33,837,513.

This decline can be partly attributed to the cancellation of Smart Telecom’s license. Previously, this telecom provider served 2.4 million mobile users.

Further adding to the decrease, the utilization of SIM cards from Nepal Telecom (NTC) and Ncell also saw a reduction exceeding 210,000.

In mid-May, the count of mobile phone owners using SIM cards had decreased by 192,853, culminating in a new total of 20,364,717. In mid-April, Nepal Telecom had 21,171,864 CDMA and GSM SIM card users.

As for Ncell, its mobile phone owning user base using Ncell SIMs fell by 17,382, now standing at 13,472,796.

The simultaneous decline in both mobile and internet users over a span of a month can be chiefly attributed to the economic downturn and the growing trend of youth migration abroad.