Internet service provider WorldLink on Sunday announced providing free WiFi hotspots in 10,000 locations across the country within a year as part of its corporate social responsibility. The company said it currently provides the service at 3,000 different locations.

“We have planned to add 100,000 hotspots within four months,” said Keshav Nepal, CEO of WorldLink addressing a press meet here on Sunday. “We have planned to enter 10 new semi urban and rural areas.”

The company said that under the rural telecommunication development fund project, it has started work in 1,115 different locations of Lamjung, Tanahu, Parbat, Kaski and Syangja to provide internet service.

The company also plans to connect internet service at the Annapurna Base Camp in Kaski district.

WorldLink claimed that it has been providing fixed broadband connection to 280,000 residences and businesses along with 85,000 internet protocol TV customers.

Nepal said that WorldLink has been trying to make internet service affordable. “We have been providing 25 Mbps internet and Net TV at Rs1,250 per month. The cost is very reasonable.”

Nepal was ranked 84th out of 100 countries in terms of affordability ranking in internet usage, according to a report of Inclusive Internet Index 2019 by Intelligence Unit of The Economist magazine.

The magazine said that the internet price in Nepal when compared to other countries is expensive. The report was prepared on the basis of cost of access relative to income and the level of competition in the market place. Similarly, the report shows that the country has been listed 74th in terms of availability of quality and infrastructure required for the access of internet.

The CEO of WorldLink said labour costs and other charges have increased the price of internet in the country.

Binay Bohara, managing director at Vianet Communications, an internet service provider, said that import of equipment and government charges in different headings were the reason behind high internet cost in the country.