78% of Nepalis have their own mobile phones, while 90% have network access, only 46% use the internet

 78% of Nepalis have their own mobile phones, while 90% have network access, only 46% use the internet

More than 78 percent of Nepal's citizens have their own mobile phones. According to the 'ICT Development Index (IDI) 2026' recently released by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), 78.4 percent of Nepal's population has access to mobile phones.

Nepal, which has been on the 'unranked' list of the global index for the past three years due to the unavailability of necessary data, has scored 68.1 points out of 100 points this time. According to the report, when this rate of mobile ownership is 'normalized' to international standards, Nepal has scored 82.5 points out of 100.

The ITU has set the standard for giving 100 points to 95 percent of citizens, considering 95 percent of citizens having a mobile phone as the best situation. Nepal has received this score with 78.4 percent access.

The ITU has analyzed Nepal's connectivity based on two main pillars. In which Nepal has received a score of 83.7 in 'Meaningful Connectivity', which covers the quality of service and network infrastructure.

The report states that in terms of infrastructure, 90 percent of Nepal's population has reached 3G and 86 percent of the population has reached 4G/LTE network access. Similarly, the number of active mobile broadband subscribers per 100 people has reached 99.6.

However, despite high mobile ownership and infrastructure development, there is still a large gap in actual internet usage. According to the report, only 46.3 percent of people in Nepal are currently using the internet, while household internet access is limited to only 40.2 percent. This indicates that despite the infrastructure and equipment, increasing digital literacy and usage rates is a major challenge for Nepal.

Nepal's situation is very positive in terms of accessibility of services. Nepal has received 92.7 points in accessibility of mobile data and voice basket and 80.8 points in the price of fixed broadband.

Nepal's overall score of 68.1 is slightly lower than the global average of 79 and the Asia-Pacific average of 80, but is well above the average score of 53 for least developed countries. The ITU, which has been on hold since 2017 and has started a new system from 2023, has not ranked countries, but only provided scores. The ITU has stated that digital skills and online safety will also be added to the index from 2027.