Posts Tagged ‘internet’

Posted on September 13, 2009

Water? Electricity? What’s more important?

Another notable moment (and there were many) that I remember from my last ride through the Terrai districts was the never-ending road construction. Roads and more specifically along the road side, mounds of earth were being ripped up for various pipe line developments.

I asked my driver Saron-dai what the long ant-line of construction workers were doing (it’s was an unbelievable sight),

“Are these pipes for water? electricity?”

Saron-dai flat out said no, and simple replied with the utmost confidence that what was really going was very important…

“These pipes are for Internet!”

“What? For the Internet?”, I was completely surprised, and to think, why would I ever think it could be for water or electricity!?!?

Of course, I had to check so when I had the opportunity, I quickly examined the pipes that were going into the gutters. One of the marked PVC pipes were actually encasing fiber-optic cable owned by Spice Nepal.

Oh how the Internet has grown….

Only a mere three years ago, dial-up internet connection was (and still is in most less developed districts) the latest and greatest telecommunications technology to hit the Nepal landscape (a far distant second to mobile phone networks of course). My colleagues Neil and Gerry mentioned to me that when they arrived during that time, dial-up Internet was just taking off (talk about going back in time to the mid-90’s). Today, high-speed cable internet access is bursting into the scene, rapidly bypassing dial-up (thank goodness) and cyber cafes are madly popping up like Tim Horton stores in southern Ontario.

…re: mobile phones

I’m still getting used to seeing Buddhist monks and villagers walking around with mobile phones that are 10-times more advanced than my antique Motorola v551 phone.

Mobile phone use etiquette in Nepal still needs some work.

Related side note: thanks to Cody for posting this article link about Solar mobile phones on my Facebook wall. Here is another related post.

Looking up

So I guess things are staring to look up in Nepal (hence the photo of the baby). Without a doubt, Internet access and mobile phone networks will continue to develop in Nepal, more than anything else…

…and you can probably gue$$ why that is.

Posted on July 16, 2009

Fighting “Information Poverty” – an article from The Globe and Mail

An interesting topic that has been on my mind for a while…

Fighting “Information Poverty” – The Globe and Mail

Teaming up with local teleco MTN Uganda and the Grameen Foundation — a non-profit offshoot of Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus’s microfinancing efforts — the web giant is launching Google SMS in the African nation. The service is designed to provide users with a mix of information ranging from sports scores to agriculture tips. The idea, Google says, is to relieve “information poverty.” Or, in other words, giving people access to information in parts of the world where information can be very hard to find.

A quick Google search retrieves Google’s take on the subject and Digital divide By Pippa Norris plus related books frmo Google Book Search.

Go Google!

Posted on June 13, 2009

Internet Access in Nepal

As human beings who often pine for some sort of contact from back home, Internet access is a must and I’m not ashamed to say, it was one of the FIRST priorities I had to address as soon as we moved into our place. It was fun trying to arrange this essential service in a different language, especially when trying to give directions to your place through a maze of houses, back alleys and dirt roads without the aid of any street names.

Below is a list of Internet Service Providers in Nepal that most of us are or have used in the past.

WorldLink – offers Cable Internet and a wide range of affordable plans (ie. 1000 nprs for 128kbps a month) along with their VOIP products but for me, it is a little sketchy the way the implement. Of the setups that I have seen to date, subscribers do not get an actual cable modem – the Ethernet cable line simply snakes in from a common box which I can imagine is a router. Weird. As of this post, colleagues have expressed down-town and whenever you get a limited access network notification on your LAN connection, you have to contact WorldLink to fix it.

Nepal Telecom Nepal (NTC) – offers ADSL Internet access for your home and USB wireless Internet access via SIM Card. A Dutch colleague of mine who has been living in Nepal for more than 25 years swears by it saying despite being Government owned and operated, it is always “on”, reliable, and cost-effective. The Pacific Guest House uses NTC and the speed has been decent.

Subisu Cable – The priciest of all the options but definitely worth it. Just like back home, you do get an actual cable modem and just like cable companies back home, it includes television cable. Obviously, I went with Subisu and have had excellent services to date.

United Telecom Limited (UTL) – aside from NTC, UTL has a great offer for USB Wireless Internet for 500 nrps per month (plus the cost of  the SIM card and set-up fee).

Check out the Internet Service Providers Association of Nepal web site for more options