Internet penetration in Nepal has been one of the biggest issues for the technology users and authority. On one hand due to lack of infrastructure and resources, it has always been a hindering factor for the development whereas on the other due to high cost, people have not been able to afford internet as a basic commodity. Though services are available but with cost high, its services are limited to a certainly group of people, where talking about local available the quality of services are very low.
But now things have changed due to the accessibility of mobile devices and other technological advancement, internet reach and accessibility has increased in Nepal. The growing market and the technological advancement have not only pushed the scenario to move towards the brighter side but it has given people a new hope to reach towards understanding the concept of the Internet and its dynamics.
According to the Nepal Telecommunication Authority (NTA), second quarter report states, “There has been a rise of 1.21% in the internet penetration in Nepal from 29.78 percent as per January 2014 to 30.99 till March 2014. Although, there is an increase in number of users of all the internet services, GPRS still leads the users’ choice of internet service with 7,788,001 users while NT’s CDMA comes second with 192,632 users and WiMax service from NT has total 7,859 users. NT leads to 52 percent of entire market share in the internet, while Ncell has 46 percent. UTL and other ISPs have 1 percent of market shares each.”
With the buzz of smart phones and cheap phone available in the market manufactured by the Chinese brands, people are relishing their needs with an extra dose of style and technology.
“It’s all about being connected, I never thought of using a smart phone and I barely knew how to use laptop or I have any interest in using technology. But now, it’s a must for me as both my children are living abroad. Most of the times, they upload their pictures in Facebook so I had to upgrade myself. So I got myself a new smart phone that is handy as well as very easy to operate. I use to think technology was not for us, but I was wrong. Technology really makes life easy and happy,” Prakash Jha, a local entrepreneur said.
Reality is due to the competition and open market, the cost and use of internet has phenomenally increased but still there has not been a standardization in cost and quality of service. People’s lifestyle are changing where every day people’s perception and attitude is changing toward technology.
Looking at the local practice, even news services, police service, banking services etc. are turning into a one touch app that are easily available on the google and apple app store. Things have gone from online to mobile instantly due to its accessibility and promptness
Ramesh Bhattarai, a student “Mobile penetration has increased unusually, perhaps the low cost android phones have made Viber, Facebook and twitter very popular. People are using Viber and Facebook like crazy to get connected with their families and it’s very amazing how old people are getting with it. I use the Internet not just stay connected in-fact I use the internet for various purposes. It has helped me so much in various ways.”
Perhaps another side of the technological advancement is the use of social networking sites for entrepreneurship ventures where people are doing business on Facebook. With the easy mechanism of opening pages and accounts people have started to open online business on Facebook. The business works by easy photo uploading for order and on-delivery payment system that has stepped up to cashing people’s interest of being online on Facebook.
Moving down another development that has made people happy is from May 2014, Ncell a Swedish/Finnish TeliaSonera owned telecom organization has teamed up with Wikimedia foundation and has offered free access to Wikipedia to all its users. As part of the Wikipedia Zero project, Ncell is providing its customers completely free of cost access to Wikipedia. Any Ncell users can access and explore as much knowledge as he/she wants through Wikipedia. Likewise, Ncell has also launched another program where its letter its user use twitter for free.
Ncell is the largest ISP in Nepal with a subscriber base of more than 1.9 million users and estimated 10 million mobile subscribers.
Hempal Shrestha, a wikipedian said, “The main objective of this initiative is to ensure that the sum of all human knowledge ie. Wikipedia is accessible to all the human kind in the most remote part of the world and reduce the barriers to accessing free knowledge—one of the largest barriers being cost of data usage. Apart from the cost, in case of developing countries like Nepal, it is also a matter of accessibility in terms of available technologies like mobile phones, skills and ability to operate these mobile devices and connecting them to knowledge bank of the commons. In-fact, it’s about Knowledge commons by the commons for the commons. The knowledge may not by of the commons ONLY though.”
People have different reasons to use the Internet, some use it for staying connected, some for accessing information, some use as a means of learning and some for other means. No matter what their purposes are, internet is the basic need and has become a normal commodity for everyone. Internet has to be standardized in every aspect of its use, reach and accessibility where there should be no discrimination. Internet for all should be the voice of today, in making it free with no discrimination.
