Nepal's Internet High and Low (28 Oct 2010)

I must say, this date will be something to remember in the Internet History of Nepal. We have had both good and bad effects of being the country of Himalayas. Good in a sense that the topographical alignment of those high hills, mountains and low rivers (Seti, Pokhara) have created such a rare eye pleasing scenario that can nowhere be seen in this world. In the mean time, the same has made the reach to modern technological advancement a challenge plotting a significant difference between urban and rural areas. Just when I came to the Netherlands, I had a chat with a resident here who had heard of Nepal but not been there. We reached a point where she pointed out Nepal being an 'under developed country' and I obviously put the mountains in front of her and the fact that we had no access to the sea. Then she says 'what about Switzerland, Luxumberg?' I was taken back by this sudden confront. 'Ya, well you are surrounded by Europe, you made  a union, worked in collaboration .. so .. so' This conversation haunted me for a long time and I still remember it in my head after 3 years.

In a similar manner as being mountainous country, today is a special day which saw both good and bad sides of Nepal being exposed to modern technology of internet and the world wide web. The bright side saw Mount Everest connected via 3g service to the world wide web which made a huge impact in the world's technological headlines. The keyword MOUNT EVEREST trending on twitter was the most spectacular view to watch as it was probably the first thing to trend in social networking giant from South Asia ;) . While the dark side was the blockage of more than 60 sites being blocked in the country  :O including the news site huffingtonpost.com citing them as containing 'pornographic content'. The list is quite an unusual which blocked the official websites of 70's English rock band 'Sex Pistols' and the 2008 American movie 'Sex and the City'. And the blame goes indeed to vision-less policy makers and politicians behind the scene.

Despite the crack headed politicians, and the worst political crisis of all times, for few years now, technology was rapidly spreading to various parts of Nepal. Thanks to the efforts of Magsaysay Award winner Mahabir Pun, who has connected many villages in a wireless network, many students and health centers have been beneficiary of the www world. 

On the other hand Nepal has seen more competitor companies in the fields of telecommunication in past 5 years. Previously Nepal Telecommunication Corporation, the then government organization used to be the sole provider of telecom services. Later on  with the popularity of Internet it tried to compete with ISP's like Mercantile, World Link, United Telecom etc. with the same service which was quite a challenge for the now promoted to public owned Company Limited organization (2004 A.D.) Obviously the competition market meant good service for the users. 

The race took a leap when Spice Nepal joined the telecom service the same year, providing those free call hours and cheap rates and easily available sim cards.These two sole competitors have since then been trying to step ahead of each other in terms of good technical services, keeping up with latest technologies (gsm, cdma, wcdma, 3g, gprs etc) and extending their service to the rural parts of Nepal. It is worth a competition.  

The Spice Nepal formed a joint venture with the Swedish telecommunication company TeliaSonera in 2008. And as of 2010, the Spice Nepal changed its brand name to NCELL. It was today, the same company NCELL has set up its 3G phone base station at an altitude of 5,200 meters (17,000 feet) in the Everest region making it the highest point to make a call which covers the calls up to 8,848 meters. And today is also the day that the company announced it will invest US$100m in 2011 to ensure that the mobile coverage increases from 33% to 90% of the total population of Nepal.The speed of 3G in Mt. Everest is now 3.6MBps which can be used by 50 people at the same time.

Lets not talk about the stupid people blocking some sites. If the public is disciplined and aware of using the technology in a proper way then one day the leaders shall learn something from it. Mind I say, the NCELL's success has a huge part of Nepalese technical workers involved in it and the leaders shall learn some social contribution from the likes of Mahabir Pun instead of loosing the Prime Ministers election 14th time. 

Oh yea, this was also the day when single candidate for the  Prime Minister's post  congressman Ram Chandra Poudel lost for the 14th time. :O :O

Finally some tweet pictures about trended word Mount Everest. 

Lets hope we hear more of such technological advancements in near future instead of political bullies. Cheers to NCELL and the team  !