Two MNOs had operated in the Nepalese market, state-owned Nepal Telecom, and Axiata-owned NCell. In 2019, the Nepal Telecommunications Authority (NTA) threatened to issue an MNO licence to an international player due to concerns about the lack of competition and investments in the telecoms market. However, due to a lack of suitable candidates, the idea was scrapped.
Nepal telecom market statistics Q4 2024
No tower sharing exists between the two mobile operators, despite regulatory pressure. The regulator would like to issue a licence to a third mobile operator and encourage the entrance of independent towercos to inject new capital into the market, but the market has limit appeal to international operators.
Nepal estimated tower ownership – Q4 2024
A few years ago, the NTA published a draft Infrastructure Development and Sharing Regulation, seeking request for proposal from towercos to provide telecom infrastructure services. Although at least eight international firms were interested, the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology (MoCIT) never issued any licenses and haven’t to this day.
In July 2021 a minor by-law was passed that prohibited a service provider from rejecting or delaying a request for site access from another company. The right to use this infrastructure will be terminated if they are not used within 3 months of the agreement being signed. The law extends to cover fibre ports, dark fibre cabling, wireless network point to point data and base transceiver stations and others.
Nepal has one of the lowest levels of access to electricity in Asia, at under 90%. 88.8% of rural locations are off grid, and power availability in urban areas is still only at 94.2%. Only Myanmar has worse access to electricity for cell sites, meaning energy related issues will be particularly important once towercos break into Nepal.
There’s a huge requirement for new infrastructure, in particular in rural areas. 2G has only reached 90% coverage, but because of the low margins both operators are hesitant to committing to rural rollout plans.
In more recent news, Huawei is set to build an NPR 484 million ($3.5m) data centre for Nepal Telecom, hoping to generate more income for the telco and the region.
