It has been three years since the government listed internet as an essential service along with water supply, tourism, petroleum, banking, electricity, insurance, hospital, medicine. However, so far only less than half of the country's households have access to the Internet.

There is also a huge divide in internet access between the poor and the non-poor. Only 9.5 percent of the poor households have access to the Internet, while 45.7 percent of the non-poor households have access to the Internet.

According to the 'Nepal Living Level Survey 2022/23' published by the National Statistics Office on Sunday, 39.7 percent of households in Nepal have access to the Internet. Among urban areas, 79.3 percent of households in Kathmandu Valley have access to the Internet, while 43.2 percent of households in urban areas outside Kathmandu Valley and 17.4 percent of households in rural areas have access to the Internet. This shows the disparity in access to existing digital infrastructure in urban and rural areas. The living standards survey has presented a complicated situation about the 'digital divide', the gap between those who have access to a computer or the Internet and those who do not.

The digital divide is considered a major challenge of the present time as it compounds other inequalities and gaps. As the government and the private sector have not taken effective initiatives to expand digital infrastructure such as broadband internet, there has been inequality in internet access. Regarding the Internet service delivery in both the government and private sector, most of the respondents responded that the situation is "fair" in the standard of living survey. Regarding the service delivery, there are many votes in 'Good', 'Fair' and 'Bad'. 31.3 percent responded that the internet service provided by the government agency is fair, 15.8 percent good and 2.7 percent bad. 38.9 percent of private organizations voted for fair, 21 percent for good and 3 percent for bad option.

In the budget statement of the next fiscal year, the government has mentioned that access to information technology will be extended to backward classes, regions, women and communities to reduce the digital divide. Although the topic of reducing the digital divide has been included in the previous year's budget, concrete programs have not been launched for this. Broadband service expansion and information highway project implemented by Nepal Telecommunication Authority by mobilizing Rural Telecommunication Development Fund have not progressed effectively. Although the authority has said that the work of high speed internet (broadband) connection has been completed in local level offices, ward offices, secondary schools and health institutions, the local level has been complaining about not getting quality services.