Number of Mobile Internet Users Drops Down For The First Time Ever

For the first time ever, the number of mobile Internet users has decreased. The number of people using the Internet from mobile phones had been increasing recently, thanks to many packages introduced by the Telecom companies to surf the Internet in a more economical and better way. The number of people had been increasing by three lakhs per month in the past fiscal year, according to Nepal Telecom Authority (NTA). The data for this month shows a different scenario though, as the number of mobile Internet users has dropped down.

According to the data published on Bhadra, 61.58% of the total population of the country i.e. 1 crore 63 lakhs 16 thousand people surf the Internet. Among them, 1 crore 56 lakhs and 35 thousand people surf the Internet through mobile phones.

However, the number of people using Internet services through mobile phones was 1 crore 57 lakhs and 48 thousand in the month of Shrawan, which is 61.99% of the total population.

The decrement of mobile Internet users is seen only for Ncell, as its users count has dropped from 74 lakhs 7 thousand users in Shrawan to 71 lakhs and 83 thousand in Bhadra.

In the meantime, the total users of Nepal Telecom and Smart Telecom has risen up, with an increase of about one lakh mobile Internet users for each network. Since the decrease in mobile Internet users of Ncell has been somewhat negated by the increase in users of Nepal Telecom and Smart Telecom, there has been an overall decrease of about 1 lakh mobile Internet users in total. Furthermore, the number of users surfing the wireless Internet provided by the ISPs has also decreased by about 1500.

As for the reasons for the decrease in the number of users, Ncell states that its because of the end of its ‘Internet for all‘ package in Shrawan. NTA spokesperson Mr. Minprasad Aryal, however, said that the decrease may also be because of NTA’s recent rule to dispose of the SIM cards that remain unused for six months.