Telcos’ subscriber growth rate hits three-year low

TELECOM companies’ subscriber growth rate hits a threeyear low in last fiscal year that witnessed just 23.38 percent rise in the total customer base as against 31.3 percent growth in 2011-12. Six telecom companies roped in 4.03 million new customers in the last fiscal year. The Nepal Telecommunications Authority (NTA) statistics show telecom companies had added 4.11 million users in 2011-12. NTA officials blamed several factors, including market saturation, delay in implementation of big projects by Nepal Telecom (NT) and operators’ reluctance to expand their services to rural areas, for the decline in the subscribers’ growth. “There is heavy growth in service operation in urban areas but such service has not been expanded in rural areas as expected,” said Ananda Raj Khanal, director at the NTA. He added that the market would see good growth in rural areas in the coming years with more players coming into GSM segment. At the end of the last fiscal year, the total number of telecom subscribers touched 20.13 million, of

which majority are GSM mobile users. Of the total customers, around 19 million are users of GSM mobile service being offered by Ncell and NT. The subscriber base of Ncell has reached 10.5 million and stateowned NT’s reached 9.17 million by the end of the last fiscal year. During the one year period, Ncell added 2.17 million customers, while NT attracted 1.42 million. With a user base of 753,000, Smart Telecom has emerged as the third largest telecom company. Smart added 357,264 users over the review period, while United Telecom Limited (UTL) added 81,696 customers taking its total subscriber base to 719,000. Similarly, Nepal Satellite Telecom and CG Communications (formerly known as STM Telecom Sanchar) reported subscriber base of 149,000 and 5,385 respectively. According to the NTA officials, the number of voice and data users will start to grow from the current fiscal year with NT starting to provide new lines under its projects 10 million GSM mobile lines and Smart preparing to go nationwide with mobile service. They said that Ncell too, as part of its service expansion, was working on expanding capacity for 2G and 3G services across the country. A higher demand for data has led both Ncell and NT to focus on data service besides the voice.