The number of mobile internet users in Nepal has been going up, but connection speed has been going down, says the latest report by Ookla, a US-based web service that provides free analysis of internet access performance metrics.

Nepal slipped to the 109th spot among 142 countries in mobile broadband speed in May, as per the Speedtest Global Index. Nepal was in the 88th position in May last year.

This shows that customers, despite paying high prices for the service, are getting low mobile broadband speed.

According to the Speedtest report, the median download speed in Nepal was measured at 16.45 Mbps in May, up from 15.39 Mbps in May last year, but still way below the median global performance.

The upload speed was measured at 10.35 Mbps in May, compared to 10.85 Mbps in May last year.

In South Asia, Maldives came out tops in internet speed. Maldives took the 38th position followed by Pakistan in the 107th spot. India came 120th, Sri Lanka 123rd, Bangladesh 129th and Afghanistan 141st.

The median global performance of mobile broadband was measured at 29.96 Mbps download speed and 8.70 Mbps upload speed.

Government officials say that high taxes, under different unseen headings, have made internet service expensive. The internet infrastructure sharing plan has not been implemented effectively in Nepal either, making internet connections one of the most expensive in the region.

Shobhan Adhikari, spokesperson for Nepal Telecom, said that infrastructure and affordability play an important role in providing quality service.

“The 4G speed has improved due to the expansion of the infrastructure. With the increase in the number of service users, base transceiver stations need to be added, and the radio network optimised accordingly," Adhikari said.

"In terms of affordability, the price of 4G has dropped by more than 35 percent since it was initiated in 2017."

The United Arab Emirates ranked in the first position in mobile broadband followed by Norway and Qatar.

According to a management and information system report by the Nepal Telecommunications Authority, there are 36.99 million internet subscribers in the country. Among them, 29.33 million are mobile internet subscribers and 7.26 million are fixed internet subscribers.

Of the total 126.72 percent internet subscriptions in the country, 97.42 percent are mobile broadband subscribers and 28.90 percent are fixed broadband subscribers.

According to the "Connectivity in the Least Developed Countries Status Report 2021" published by the International Telecommunication Union, mobile broadband has a higher impact on economic growth than fixed broadband in the developing countries, with the main factor being that there are so few fixed broadband subscriptions.

The least developed countries are far from reaching the penetration threshold to benefit from fixed broadband economic impacts, estimated to be around 10 fixed broadband subscriptions per 100 people.

The slowdown in rolling out mobile broadband networks is due to a number of factors like constrained competition, perceived limited demand, spectrum constraints and lack of infrastructure sharing, the report said.

Affordability is also a factor, as per the report. Mobile data prices have declined in all regions, but in the least developed countries, the cost is still seven times higher than the affordability target set by the United Nations, the report said.

Nepal was using on average 2 GB data monthly in 2020, which is more than the International Telecommunication Union basket of 1.5 GB.

Nepal Telecom is planning to roll out the much-awaited 5G technology for commercial purposes by the end of this fiscal year in mid-July 2022.

Initially, Nepal Telecom had targeted to begin trials from mid-July 2021, but changes in government delayed the plan, officials say.

Nepal currently has 4G networks which were established in January 2017.

The Himalayan republic has improved in fixed broadband, rising to the 82nd position from the 95th position in the previous year.

Nepal took the 82nd position in March with a median 41.29 Mbps download speed and 38.67 Mbps upload speed in fixed broadband. In May 2021, the download speed was measured at 22.17 Mbps and the upload speed was measured at 19.20 Mbps.

The country's fixed broadband internet speed showed significant improvement from December last year, rising from the 98th position in November to the 79th position.

The download speed increased from 28.32 Mbps in November last year to 40.37 Mbps in December last year while the upload speed increased from 24.26 Mbps in November to 37.81 Mbps in the review period.

Among South Asian countries, India is ahead in fixed broadband speed ranking in the 72nd position. Nepal is ahead of Bangladesh in the 97th position, Sri Lanka in the 118th position, Maldives in the 138th position, Bhutan in the 150th position, Pakistan in the 151st position and Afghanistan in the 182nd position in fixed broadband.

The median global performance of fixed broadband was measured at 62.52 Mbps download speed and 26.98 Mbps upload speed.

Singapore ranked in first position in fixed broadband followed by Chile and Thailand.

According to the "Connectivity in the Least Developed Countries Status Report", Nepal has a fixed broadband penetration of around 5 per 100 people.