GPRS users grow 3 times in a year

KATHMANDU, July 3: The number of GPRS users has risen three times in a year. According to Nepal Telecommunication Authority (NTA), there were 840,397 GPRS users last year which has grown to 2.58 million by mid-May 2011. Increasing number of data users is definitely a good news for telecom operators which have started targeting data service in the recent months.



At present, Nepal Telecom and Ncell are offering GPRS services in the country.[break]



Rise in the number of GPRS users is more than the growth in GSM users, which stand above 10 million at present. GSM subscribers were 6.4 million in mid-May 2010. Internet penetration during this period has also grown four times to reach 10.03 percent from less than 3 percent.



GPRS, a technology that enables cellular phone users to surf the Internet through radio transmission of small packets of data, is one of the most popular forms of Internet browsing. It comprises 90 percent of Internet users, whose total number stands at 2.86 million. Out of which, Ncell GPRS subscribers have reached 1.77 million and GPRS users of Nepal Telecom (NT) are 814,970. The statistics of May 2010 show that out of total 840,397 users 707,989 were Ncell subscriber and remaining 132,408 NT subscribers.



Binay Bohra, president of Internet Service Providers´ Association of Nepal (ISPAN), said that easy access and increasing use of GSM were major reasons for the rise in the number of GPRS users. However, he doubted weather GPRS users can be as active users as Internet offered by other systems.



"The trend shows that most of the subscribers are not making most of the Internet services but limit themselves to checking emails and updating social networking sites like facebook," Bohra said.



Spokesperson of NTA, Kailash Nepuane, said that GPRS service is playing a major role in increasing Internet penetration in the country. "People who can´t afford computer can also enjoy Internet facility with GPRS service," he added. Despite the rise in the number of users, the tariff is considered expensive. Apart from that, GPRS users complain about poor connectivity as the service depends on GSM network.



Nepali customers have started enjoying Internet on mobile phones after the then Mero Mobile introduced GPRS service in 2007. However, the growth was visible in the last two years after the introduction of 3G service which provided high speed Internet to GPRS users.

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