Though Nepal lags behind other countries in South Asia in ICT development index, Nepali ICT sector has witnessed a significant growth in past two decades. As big changes emerged in information technology globally, adoption of liberal policies helped to flourish the Nepali ICT sector. 

 

Nepal officially opened its sector to competition with Communications Policy in 1992 and established an independent regulatory authority, the Nepal Telecommunications Authority (NTA), with the Telecommunications Act in 1997. 1999 saw further opening of the telecommunications sector with the licensing of independent VSAT operators, which led to a huge increase in internet service provider’s (ISP) bandwidth. The new millennium saw the launching of an ambitious but high level IT Policy. 

 

Recognizing the role of ICT as a spur to development, the Government of Nepal’s Tenth Five- Year Plan (2002-2007) stresses the need to promote the access and use of ICT, thereby “generating employment opportunities, contributing to form knowledge-based societies and promoting knowledge-based businesses and industries.” As part of this process, the telecommunications sector has been increasingly opened up to private competition, rural telecenters have been established across the country by a range of public and private organizations, and new initiatives, such as establishing an IT Park, are underway. The government has also recently launched a far reaching e-government programme, designed to streamline government back office operations and increase the availability of online services. 

 

At present, there are six telecom service providers in Nepal-Nepal Telecom, Ncell, Smart Telecom, UTL, Nepal Satellite Telecom, STM Telecom Sanchar. The total annual transaction of these companies is estimated to be around Rs 100 billion. There are more than 3 thousand software companies said to be operating in Nepal. These companies export software around 10 million US dollars a year. Similarly Rs 30 billion is being generated by annual transactions of IT products along with mobile handsets. The IT trade in Nepal is recording a growth of 25 per cent per annum, according to Nepal Telecommunication Authority. 

 

The telephone and internet access of the population has also risen sharply in recent years. According to official data, telephone and internet access rate of the population is now 75.46 per cent and 24.51 percent respectively. The total number of mobile phone users has climbed to 10.77 million while the number of mobile internet users is said to have reached 6.79 million.