KATHMANDU, Sept 14: Data consumption of Ncell, a privately owned telecom operator, reached 6.8 million GB in second quarter of 2017.
In its financial statement for the second quarter (April-June) of 2017, Malaysian company Axiata said data use increased by more than two and half times compared to the same period of previous fiscal year.
The data consumption in second quarter of 2016 was only 2.7 million GB. Such significant growth in data consumption is partly because the operator launched 4G service in June.
Ncell says data consumption jumped by 2.5 times in Q2
“Data consumption has improved because of the launch of 4G service in June. Revenue from data has increased by16.9 percent to Rs 14.47 billion compared to review period,” the report states.
According to the report, per user data consumption has also increased. The report states that each Ncell subscriber user 341 MB per month. This is nearly double compared to per user consumption of 160 MB in the second quarter of 2016.
Data revenue has 18 percent share in total revenue that Ncell mobilized in the second quarter of 2017, according to the report. According to the report, 44 percent of Ncell's 15.6 million subscribers use mobile data.
Ncell rolled out 4G in Kathmandu Valley including Nagarkot, Banepa and Dhulikhel in June. It has expanded 4G coverage to 19 cities. Ncell 4G is available in Pokhara, Damauli, Biratnagar, Birtamod, Damak, Dharan, Bharatpur, Hetauda, Birgunj, Bhairahawa, Butwal, Nepalgunj, Kohalpur and others cities.
The Axiata-owned company has also announced plan to double 3G coverage to 60 per cent population of the country, focusing both rural and remote areas by the end of 2018.
Nepal Telecom, a state-owned company, started 4G service on January 1, 2017. Another private operator SmartCell has also got license to launch 4G service in the country. It is expected to roll out 4G service soon. National Broadband Policy has also envisaged making broadband connections available to 45 percent households within 2018 and establishing broadband connections to all rural municipalities by 2020.
