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Nepal’s Digital Divide: Why Millions Still Lack Affordable Internet Access

Despite high reported internet penetration, millions of Nepalis – especially in rural areas – remain offline or struggle with unreliable and unaffordable connections. 

Two women peer at a smartphone screen in Nepal.

For 23-year-old law student Narayan Rokaya, staying connected in his village of Lha means stepping back in time. While Nepal’s cities have long moved past the sluggish “E” networks that plague his phone, Rokaya must walk to the local ward office and wait in line with neighbors just to access the internet. “Even for basic studying, we have to wait our turn,” he said, noting that daily queues are a reality for anyone hoping to communicate with family abroad.

Laxmi Joshi, 21, a student from Dogadakedar Rural Municipality–2 in Baitadi, technically has internet access, but the connection shifts unpredictably between 2G, 3G, and occasionally 4G, disappearing altogether during power cuts or bad weather. “I have to walk 30–35 minutes just to get a proper signal. The internet is unreliable here – not indoors, not in the rain, not when the electricity goes out,” Joshi explained.

Their experiences reflect a broader pattern: for many Nepalis, access to the internet is either unavailable or too inconsistent to rely on.

This gap stands in sharp contrast to Nepal’s ambitious IT Decade (2024–2034), which targets 3,000 billion Nepali rupees in ICT exports and 500,000 direct jobs. While the vision looks outward, millions within the country continue to navigate a digital landscape that was never built with them in mind.

The Illusion of Connectivity

In early 2026, the Nepal Telecommunications Authority (NTA) reported a broadband penetration rate of 145.69 percent – more subscriptions than people. The figure overstates access; many users hold both a mobile SIM and a fixed-line connection, each counted separately.

Other data points tell a different story. DataReportal’s Digital 2026 Nepal report estimated that only 56 percent of the population was online as of late 2025, leaving roughly 13 million people offline. The Nepal Living Standards Survey 2022/23 similarly found that only about 40 percent of households have internet access at home – far below what coverage maps suggest.

The divide is sharper among low-income households. Just 9.5 percent of households below the poverty line have internet access, in a country where 20.27 percent of the population falls into that category. For many, the digital economy is not merely slow or unequal – it remains out of reach. 

The challenge is compounded by geography. About 77 percent of Nepalis live in rural areas, where connectivity is either unavailable or prohibitively expensive. While the Kathmandu Valley reports an internet penetration rate of 79.3 percent, Karnali Province lags at just 14 percent, underscoring the gap between policy commitments and lived reality.

Industry leaders recognize that momentum has slowed. Sudhir Parajuli, president of the Internet Service Providers Association of Nepal and Subisu, a Nepal-based internet service provider, explained that while Nepal remains among South Asia’s leaders in fiber internet penetration – with around 42 percent of households connected – the rapid growth seen during the COVID-19 pandemic has since leveled off and, in some areas, begun to decline.

For students like Rokaya and Joshi, this is not an abstract trend – it defines their daily experience.

“Students in urban areas learn through daily access to information, but in remote villages like mine, these opportunities are scarce. I have yet to see the impact the internet could make,” Rokaya said.

The Affordability Gap: Price, Policy, and Value

Affordability remains another constraint. According to the ITU’s Facts and Figures 2025, users in lower-middle-income economies spend roughly seven times more of their income on mobile broadband than those in high-income countries.

On paper, Nepal’s internet appears affordable, a view often reinforced by industry leaders who argue that the cost is reasonable when averaged over daily use. However, this framing overlooks a more critical question: affordable for whom, and at what level of reliability?

Fixed broadband costs about 7.28 percent of average per capita income – more than three times the international affordability benchmark of 2 percent. Access remains limited, with only 4.8 fixed broadband subscriptions per 100 people, far below the global average. Mobile data is more widespread, but not necessarily more accessible. At an average of 57.38 rupees per gigabyte, it remains out of reach for many, particularly the 20 percent of Nepalis living below the poverty line.

Even regionally, Nepal compares poorly. Users spend a significantly higher share of their income on internet services than those in neighboring South Asian countries, where costs remain below 1 percent of gross annual income. The issue, then, is not just pricing in isolation, but the relative burden that it imposes on users.

Industry stakeholders often frame this as a perception gap. Parajuli argued that Nepal has some of the cheapest internet in the world, noting that people readily spend 25 rupees on a cup of tea yet consider 24/7 internet expensive. He emphasized that the comparison is misleading: tea is a one-time expense, while internet service is continuous. When the cost is calculated on a daily usage basis, he suggested, internet access becomes even more affordable – making the issue less about price and more about perception.

But perception breaks down in places like Baitadi.

In Baitadi, Laxmi Joshi pays 1,000–1,500 rupees a month for a connection too weak to support basic services. Digital payments fail, educational content does not load, and even simple applications remain inaccessible. The issue is not just cost, but value.

“Transaction failures occur frequently due to network instability. Many apps won’t open, and streaming services like YouTube often struggle to load. Despite paying monthly, I can’t access online education or download study........

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