According to statistics of Nepal Telecommunication Authority (NTA), there were 65,000 subscribers under ISPs till the end of 2009/10 which went down to 52,527 by the end of last fiscal year. [break]
During this period, the number of dial-up users has gone down by 33 percent whereas the number of wireless users has gone up by more than 70 percent, registering 10,000 more subscribers in a year.
The latest data shows Worldlink is leading among ISPs with 19,858 subscribers, followed by Broadlink with 11,792 subscribers.
Binod Timalsina, CEO of Broadlink, which is the market leader in the wireless segment opines that despite tough competition in the market, ISPs are growing. "We have reached nearly 12,000 subscribers in less than eight months, which is a very positive beginning." He added the roaming facility is making Wi-Fi service popular among others. "One can use the Internet from anyplace by having log-in name and password," he added.
The Internet penetration of the country has reached 10. 89 percent as of mid-June 2011. However, nearly 98 percent the total users are GPRS users.
President of Internet Service Providers Association of Nepal (ISPAN) Binay Bohara said although the number of home users is dropping, the number of corporate users yielding larger revenue is on the positive track. "The number of ISPs targeting corporate users is also on the rise," he said.
ISPs maintain that the government is promoting the sector because of which new players are skeptical to enter and the existing players are hesitating to make large investment.
Timalsina of Broadlink said that it would be better if the government assigns a separate frequency for their operation. "We are operating under 2.4 MHz and since other users use the same frequency there are chances of interference and there is also a threat to Internet speed with increasing number of users," he said.
At present, Mercantile Communication has 9,445, Subisu Cablenet has 5,276 and Web Surfer has 958 users.
Following repeated calls from NTA, ISPs submitted the number of Internent subscribers. Out of 48 ISPs, only 28 have submitted the detailed report.
Spokesperson of NTA Kailash Prasad Neupane said the authority is preparing to take action against the subscribers which failed to submit the report.
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