Nepal spent Rs 3.7b on bandwidth last year

NEPAL’S telecom companies and internet service providers (ISPs) paid Rs 3.76 billion to international carriers in bandwidth fees to access the internet in the last fiscal year. With the number of internet users soaring, service providers have been paying more for bandwidth even as services charges have been dropping due to fierce competition. According to the Nepal Telecommunications Authority (NTA), its licensees paid Rs 2.58 billion as bandwidth charges during the previous fiscal 2011-12. The NTA recommends to the Ministry of Information and Communications that foreign exchange facility be issued to its licensees to pay bandwidth charges. Following the ministry’s okay, telecom companies and ISPs get foreign exchange from Nepal Rastra Bank to pay their international suppliers. NTA Director Ananda Raj Khanal said that bandwidth costs had been swelling due to a heavy growth in internet users and access to international content. “Bandwidth charges increase in line with the growth in the number of internet users,” he added. As of mid-June 2013, there were 6.84 million internet users in Nepal, and 97 percent of them were customers of the big two companies Ncell and Nepal Telecom. NTA officials said that bandwidth costs had not increased much due to the advent of optical fibre which is cheaper than satellite connections. Meanwhile, ISPs said that more than 60 percent of the web content being accessed by Nepali consumers was hosted on servers located in the US or Europe. “Expenses are growing for bandwidth as most customers access international content,” said Binay Bohara, president of the Internet Service Providers Association of Nepal. He added that there was a need for local web content to cut bandwidth costs. According to the NTA, Ncell spent Rs 1.66 billion on bandwidth during the last fiscal year while Nepal Telecom spent Rs 1.05 billion. Nepali customers can choose from an array of services ranging from wireless GPRS and high speed lease line service to 3G mobile data service. The country’s internet penetration rate had reached 25.82 percent of the total population of 26.49 million as of mid-June 2013. The penetration rate was 19 percent a year ago. Bandwidth use has soared with the rising popularity of social networking sites, email and internet video. Facebook, YouTube and Google, in that order, are the top three websites visited by Nepali internet users, according to Alexa, a company that provides global web traffic data. Most web content enters Nepal over optical fibre via Indian telecom companies. As of mid-June 2013, there were 6.84 million internet users in Nepal, and 97 percent of them were customers of the big two companies Ncell and Nepal Telecom