Nepal saw its telephony customer base rise to 14.75 million on 14 November, up from 14.25 million in mid-October, according to figures from the Nepal Telecommunications Authority (NTA). The total comprises 13.10 million mobile subscribers, 844,816 fixed subscribers, and 808,150 other telephony users (satellite and limited mobility services). Furthermore, Nepal counted 3.75 million internet users.
The number of mobile customers grew from 12.62 million in mid-October to 13.10 in November. Of the total, 12.24 million were GSM users, up from 11.76 million a month earlier, and the remainder use Nepal Telecom's CDMA service called Sky Phone. Spice Nepal (Ncell) led with 6.69 million GSM subscribers, up from 6.33 million, followed by Nepal Telecom with a customer base of 5.56 million, up from 5.42 million a month earlier.
The number of fixed telephony users in Nepal rose to 844,816 from 843,847 in October. Of the total, 616,511 were PSTN users and 228,305 were WLL users. Nepal Telecom grew its PSTN base to 610,805 from 608,871, followed by STM Telecom Sanchar with 5,108 customers, and Smart with 598 PSTN subscribers. Nepal Telecom also had 154,800 WLL users, down from 155,823 a month earlier, while United Telecom had 71,000 WLL customers, and Nepal Satellite Telecom had 2,505 WLL subscribers.
Furthermore, the country counted 3.75 million internet users, up from 3.59 million reported in mid-October and the penetration rate stood at 14.09 percent. Some 3.44 million people connect to the internet using GPRS and 171,078 internet users connect through CDMA 1X. Some 76,740 internet subscribers use ADSL and there were also 16,898 cable internet users, and 19,764 dial-up users. Also, 30,397 internet users connect through other wireless or fibre optic technologies.
Source: http://www.telecompaper.com/news/nepals-mobile-base-rises-to-1310-mln-in-november
