CONNECTING RURAL NEPAL

TO THE GLOBAL VILLAGE:

STRATEGIES AND LESSONS LEARNED
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By MAHABIR PUN
2007 Ramon Magsaysay Awardee
for Community Leadership
Presented at the 49th Ramon Magsaysay Awards Lecture Series
29 August, 2007, Manila, Philippines
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1.! Introduction
Over the past few years a great deal of attention has been placed on issues
of information and communication technology access and the digital
divide by development organizations and governments throughout the
world. The wireless project that we have started in Nepal has taken a
serious look at the same issues, but it approached the problem from a
grassroots perspective. We have named the project as Nepal Wireless
Networking Project.
The Nepal Wireless Networking Project was not started as a result of the
policies and decisions made by international organizations or the
Government of Nepal. It started with a dream, and the dream
unexpectedly turned into a project in pursuit of finding ways to bring
Internet and telephone services at Himanchal Higher Secondary School of
Myagdi district, which is situated at one days trek from the nearest roadaccessible town of Nepal. Now the wireless network of Myagdi is one of
the several networking projects that we have started in Nepal.

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It took almost seven years to make the dream come true in a very
unfavorable working situation in Nepal. The autocratic rule of the king
and the presence of the communist insurgents in the rural areas of Nepal
created a great deal of difficulty in setting up and running the network.
Regardless, the project successfully overcame those obstacles and set up
a pilot wireless network in an area where no business dared to go.
I would like to share the goals of the project before I share the challenges
that we had faced, the strategies we had taken and the lessons we had
learned from the project.
1.1 Goals and Objectives
The long-term goal is to maximize the benefits of wireless technology
for the rural population in mountainous areas in order to make the life of
villagers a bit easier and more enjoyable. Specifically, we aim to achieve
the following goals, divided into six main goal areas:
Communication: To increase communication facilities in the
mountainous areas by providing Internet phone system (VoIP), by
making Internet available and by making local e-bulletin board
accessible to the villagers.
Education: To increase educational opportunities in the rural
schools by creating a live tele-teaching program and by providing elearning materials to students, and teachers through the Intranet in
order to meet the shortage of qualified teachers.
Health: To establish a tele-hospital in urban area and link it to the
district level hospitals and rural health centers in order to increase
the quality and availability of healthcare in the rural communities.

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The goal is to bring medical doctors virtually in the remote villages

to provide medical assistance to the villagers through telemedicine
program.
E-governance: To empower district governments launch egovernance program by helping to set up a district data center in
district headquarters and by linking the local governments to the
district headquarters through wireless technology.
Local e-commerce: To help villagers to put information of their
products in the local market through local intranet site, and to
provide information of their produces to potential buyers as well as
to get the market price of their produces.
Job and Business Creation: To generate jobs for younger
generation locally through communication centers, e-learning and
local e-commerce programs While attaining all these goals will
take time, the project already provides some of the benefits
mentioned above to the villagers, such as communication,
educational, and telemedicine facilities. Right now we are focusing
more on live teleteaching and local e-commerce programs.
First I would like to tell in brief about the area that has been serviced by
the network.
Network Service Area
All the villages serviced by the network have no motor-accessible roads.
The villages are accessible only by foot. It takes eight days of walking to
visit all the villages that are in the wireless network.
The wireless network currently offers connectivity and Internet and
communication facilities to thirteen communities of Nepal. The villages
serviced by the network vary in size from 150 to 2,485 people.
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Additionally, it has created two relay stations (to forward the signal over
mountain passes), a base station/server facility, and a connection to a
hospital in Pokhara for telemedicine program.
Furthermore, seven high schools in the region are connected to the
networks that also serve as the communication centers for the villages.
The total number of students of the seven schools is about 1,700. Those
schools have from six to fifteen computers.
2. Challenges Faced and Strategies Taken to Overcome
I would like to categorize the challenges that we had faced in four areas,
which are as follows. In the meantime, I would like to explain the
strategies we took to overcome them: Technical Challenges, Financial
Challenges, Legal Challenges, Management Challenges.
2.1. Technical Challenges
The very first challenge was the technical challenge because all of the
technical people involved for setting up the network at the initial stage
including the author of this paper had only a very little idea about setting
up wireless network and the technology itself. The main challenge was
the distance and high mountains as the obstruction to the Wi-fi radio
signals. The distance between my village and the nearest city with the
Internet connection were about 40 km with a 3,200m high mountain in
between. Since the number of such long distance links using Wi-fi
technology did not exist that time, many of the telecommunication
engineers were not sure if such a long distance connection would work.
Therefore, the pilot test was conducted in spring 2002 mainly to determine
the feasibility of connecting the village of Nangi to Pokhara, to access the
Internet.

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We started the testing using different kinds of homemade antennas in

shorter ranges and then increased the distance to 10 km, which worked
very well. Therefore, we had decided to test the link to a city that was 34km far. Our strategy to overcome the technical challenges from the very
beginning was learning by doing or let us see what happens type. In
other words, we had to play with the wireless equipment a lot in order to
find how it works and what works the best.
We were very happy when we became able to connect the city that was
34-km far. !The first long range testing from Relay 1 to a city (34 The first
long range testing from Relay 1 to a city KM) putting dishes on the ground
in 2002 (34 KM) putting dishes on the tree.
After the successful testing of the long distance link, we did not have any
difficulties in connecting 13 villages in the region because all the villages
were in the range of from 10 to 20 kilometer ranges from the nearest relay
stations.
Another technical challenge was the unavailability of power at the relay
stations and in some of the villages. Since the two major relay stations
were at remote areas, we had to use solar energy to power up the radio
equipment. However, solar energy was not enough because those areas
get lots of clouds. Therefore, we are using wind generators and a bicycle
generator at the relay stations as back up power system. Still the power is
not enough especially when the mountains get cloud for more than a week
during the monsoon season. At that situation we need to shut down the
radios during the night.
2.2 Financial Challenges
The second challenge was finding funds to expand the network to more
villages. For the testing phase of the project, different individuals in the
US had donated Dlink 900 AP Wi-fi access points and the people living
in the cities of Nepal donated their TV mesh dish antennas that they were
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not using. Therefore it took some time to connect more villages in the
network after we successfully tested the long-range connection.
It was mainly because of the shortage of funding, the implementation of
the network occurred in two stages. In the first phase, we had connected
five villages in September 2003. Funds for the first phase (USD6,000)
were obtained from an undergraduate student (Mark Michalski) of the
Univeristy of California at Los Angeles, who received a grant from the
Donald Strauss Foundation in the USA. The fund was augmented by
subsidized equipment from the smartBridges Company of Singapore, and
the Pacific Wireless Company of the USA. A server using free software
called Jana Server provided Internet access to the villages with a dial-up
connection in Pokhara for about six months. However, the cost for the
telephone connection and the Internet connection was very high.
Therefore the project decided to replace the dial-up connection by a 64
Kpbs dedicated wireless connection from a Nepali ISP in Pokhara.
The second phase of the network implementation expanded coverage to
eight more villages in 2005. It added a number of important network
services, replaced equipment from the first phase that had malfunctioned
and built a strong backbone for the network. The bulk of the funding
(USD20,000) for this phase was obtained from a World Bank grant
through the Poverty Alleviation Funds of the Government of Nepal. The
fund was supplemented by a grant of USD 4,500 from the International
Center for Applied Studies in Information Technology at the George
Mason University School of Public Policy, USA for handbook printing,
training and publicity.
We had used most of the funding that we had received to buy wireless
gears such as radios, switches, storage batteries, solar powers, network
camera, Internet telephone sets etc. We did not have any money left to
buy computers for the schools.

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Getting computers for the schools was another challenge. Therefore, we

decided to collect used computers from donors. Most of the computers
were acquired by requesting individuals and businesses abroad to donate
used computer parts that were then sent to tourists or volunteers coming
to Nepal. Those parts were collected at a contact point in Kathmandu and
then carried to villages where they were assembled in wooden boxes. In
the case of laptops, the process was much simpler: the whole laptop was
sent from abroad and then carried to the village.
However, we needed money to buy the monitors for the assembled
computers. To meet the need we approached the communities that were
ready to buy the monitors, interested about the technology, ready to
manage the network and make it sustainable. Most of the communities we
approached were very helpful for implementing the project in their
villages. However, during the second phase of the project, which was the
peak time of the political crisis in Nepal, some of the villagers were often
reluctant to participate due to fears of violence from the government
soldiers and the Maoists rebels. Therefore, we had implemented the
project in the villages that were ready to take risk and very much
interested to use the technology.
2.3 Regulatory and Legal Challenges
The political instability had been a major obstacle for setting up the
wireless network. First, the autocratic rule of the king created a situation
in which importing and using wireless networking equipment was
severely restricted. Therefore acquiring wireless equipment from abroad
was extremely difficult and risky. Second, conflict in rural Nepal had
made work extremely difficult because we had to face threats of closure
by the Maoist rebels. The communist rebels were very suspicious with the
network that we were building in the villages. Somehow they provided
permission to set up the network. However, they were closely monitoring
our wireless networking activities.

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At that situation we had decided to smuggle all the wireless equipment

with the help of international volunteers from the USA, Canada and
Singapore to build the network. After the equipment were smuggled into
the country, it was difficult to carry the equipment to the villages because
there were many military checkpoints all over the places.
After the restoration of democracy in Nepal, we did strong lobbying along
with the Internet Service Provider Association of Nepal and organizations
working in the field of information technology to deregulate the import
and use of the Industrial, Scientific and Medical Bands (2.4010-2.4730
GHz and 5.7250-5.8500 GHz). I gave several power point presentations
to the Members of Parliament (MPs) and the government bureaucrats.
We put forward the following recommendations to Nepal Government to
bring liberal ICT.
De-license 2.4010-2.4730 GHz and 5.7250-5.8500 GHz bands
(ISM bands) and make it license free to import and to use without
paying any additional fee.
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! Make VoIP free at least to make call from computer to

computer and computer to landline telephone of Nepal Telecom.
! Bring liberal ICT policies by decreasing the high license fee
that is being imposed to the Internet Service Providers (ISPs) so that
small business entrepreneurs can also start ISP companies and
provide cheaper Internet services.
! Provide subsidy to community based organizations that are
interested to establish Community Internet Service Provider (CISP)
companies in each district headquarter of Nepal using VSAT
technology for Internet connection and use wireless technology to
extend the network to the remote villages of the district.

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As a result, Nepal Government de-licensed the 2.4 GHz and 5.8 GHz
bands after our hard lobbying for more than a month. Moreover, the
government has recently made a policy to help small business
entrepreneurs become a Rural Internet Service Provider (RISP) by
bringing the license fee from several thousands dollars to about three
dollars (US). Because of this policy there are several businesses working
right now to bring the Internet services in the rural areas. Right now we
are lobbying for legalizing VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) in Nepal.
After the announcement of the Ramon Magsaysay Award, I was invited
by the parliamentary committee of Nepal to give my views on the VoIP
issues. I told the committee that the telemedicine program, the
teleteaching program and making calls using Yahoo messenger, Skype or
Google Talk would be illegal if VoIP is not legalized. I told that if the
government makes the VoIP free, telephone services will be very cheap
for the people living in the remote areas. Theoretically, the government
has agreed for this demand, however, they are still working on some issues
before they make it free.
2.4 Management Challenges
Above all, making a project financially sustained is the biggest
challenges. For this to happen, a good management system is required.
This is something that all the donor agencies want to make sure before
they provide money for any project. In order to make the project
financially sustained, we have made a management plan, which are as
follows:
The Nepal Wireless Networking Project at present is a public enterprise
because it is owned and run by a community high school. It is managed
by an elected school management committee of 7 members that meets
regularly and makes policy decisions to run the school including the
projects it runs.

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Nepal Wireless Networking Project is just one of the several projects

started by the school for producing incomes locally. In order to make the
project run smoothly in the rural areas, the project uses an organization
structure in which many community stakeholders are involved, including
local schools, local governments and local businesses. This allows an
avenue for democratic participation as well as risk and profit sharing.
For making the project financially sustainable, it has created a system
where the communication centers collect all of the revenues from end
users, while the project as a whole charge the centers a reduced rate for
access to the Internet and the telephone services. So far the
communication centers are paying their bills to the project for
connectivity and are making just enough money to pay for the operational
cost of the community communication centers.
3. Lessons Learned
Many lessons were learned from the Nepal Wireless Networking Project
that may be of use to others interested parties undertaking similar projects.
We will share these lessons in two parts: First, those of a technical nature
and, second, those of a more practical nature.
3.1 Technical Lessons
Through our project, we learned several lessons about the technical
aspects of setting up and installing a community wireless network. These
include the following:
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capability of 802.11b devices exceed more than

manufacturer specification: Many 802.11b wireless devices
exceed manufacturer specifications if it is deployed in the remote
areas where there are no interferences, and there is a clear line of
sight between two network points. In our pilot test, we found that an
indoor access point rated to reach 300 meters outdoor had a range

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over 30 kilometers with a homemade mesh dish antenna at 2Mbps

connection speed.
Device is susceptible to weather: Some wireless devices are
susceptible to weather and lightening. While the weather of Nepal
is quite harsh and lightening is very common during spring season,
we had lost some radios due to bad weather. Good grounding
procedures are required to reduce the loss.
Wi-fi device is useful for delivering services other than just
connecting to the Internet: People around the world are using the
wireless devices mostly for connecting Internet at their homes. The
project has learned that the technology can be useful much more
than people have probably thought of. The project has tested that the
technology can be very useful for delivering telemedicine, and teleteaching programs within an Intranet. Also the wireless network can
be used to provide telephone services to remote mountain villages,
where services from telephone companies cant reach, at much
cheaper cost and easier way.
Long-range network must have to have strong backbone: When
setting up a long-range network above 15 km far, it is essential to
have a strong backbone with reliable equipment. In our case, the
equipment that we have used for the backbone is the 2.4 GHz and
5.7 GHz Motorola Canopy even if it is much more expensive than
Wi-fi equipment.
Little training is required for setting up a Wi-fi network: Our
experience tells that one does not have to be trained IT professional
or college graduate to install Wi-fi wireless network. None of our
Nepal team member or international volunteers had experience
setting up a wireless network when the project began. Now even the
village team members with little formal education can setup and
maintain the network.

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! Management and technical training should be provided to local

people: Project needs to use local expertise or local capable

individuals to help maintain the technical aspect of the network.
Having their involvement is critical to the technical sustainability.
! Addressing and Routing should be done using hostnames: Our
experiences say that using HOSTNAMES with DHCP and DNS is
preferable to using static addressing for a big network. Furthermore,
using a consistent routing system from the beginning allows the
network to grow quickly.
! Manuals and documents should be maintained well: Network
manager needs to keep manuals for every piece of equipment in a
central location. Having an equipment inventory would be a good
idea. It is necessary to maintain backup of the configurations for all
devices and computers. Making notes of every failed experiment is
very important. 3.2 Practical Lessons: These lessons are of a more
practical nature and address the use of the network in a social
environment.
! Wireless network can be a very useful alternative
communication means in emergency situations: Wireless
community networks can be very useful when other means of
communication (landline and mobile phones, radios, etc) are not
working. On February 1, 2005, the king declared the state of
emergency in Nepal around 10 AM. Soon after that all the telephone
services, Internet services, FM stations, televisions, and newspapers
in Nepal were shut down for indefinite period. However, the
network of Nepal Wireless Networking Project was running even
during that period. Villagers that were in the service area were able
to communicate each other through VoIP phone services. They
could also send/get messages between the villages through the
network.

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! The number of users grows fast: The project has found that young

people can quickly learn how to use the Internet, and play games
from their friends. We have found that it will take weeks or months,
not years, for villagers who had never used computers before to
write e-mails, chat online, to play games, and to share ideas using
computers. It just happens if it is available even in the remote areas.
! Occasional training for the users should be organized: We found
an imperative need to ensure that the users are kept fully trained to
maximize the potentials offered by the network to the maximum
number of villagers. Therefore, occasional short-term refresher
training programs in each of the villages is needed to keep the users
up to date.
! Networking projects create job opportunities: The project has
learned that even a small network can create several jobs in a
developing country like Nepal, where very little jobs are available
on the job market for college graduates.
! Networking projects help to reduce poverty: We have learned
from our trial local e-commerce program that wireless networks
help people to sell local products in local market easily. The
villagers can find the market price of their products easily from the
Internet. The information on the market price will help them to get
fair price for their product. It will thus help to reduce poverty in
developing countries.
4. Current Projects and Future Plans
There are several communities across Nepal asking for help to set up the
wireless network in their areas. We are also trying to convince the
government to build an information highway using wireless technology
across Nepal. The work is in progress in a district called Makawanpur.

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With the support from the International Telecommunication Union (ITU),

the project is going to expand the existing network of Myagdi districts to
10 more villages by the end of October. For this project, ITU is providing
radios, solar panels, and other networking gears.
While we are happy of our successes to date, we also realize that there are
many areas where we can improve the network. We would like to
concentrate on the following areas as we move forward.
"! Replicate the wireless network through out the country: The
project has already gotten request from four districts of Nepal for
help to set up the wireless network. We are also working with
several Members of Parliament to build wireless network in
seventeen districts of Nepal to provide the services to the rural
people. For that, we have made a master plan and have submitted it
to the National Planning Commission of Nepal.
"! Provide additional resources needed for the tele-teaching
installation: The present plan is to make live tele-teaching a viable
educational opportunity for students in the community. While we
have invested in some of the necessary technology, further work
and investment is needed to reach a point where the live teleteaching works effectively helping to address the shortage of
qualified teachers. The major investment that will be required for
tele-teaching is buying LCD projectors, faster computers for each
classroom, and better audio-video conferencing equipment.
"! Organize training programs for interested people to help
replicate the network: Several people have shown their interests
to replicate such network in their districts. In order to encourage
people to replicate the project in different parts of Nepal, training
programs will be organized in different parts of the country. For the
training purpose, a handbook in simple Nepali language has already
been published.

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"! Develop a formal web application dedicated to the purposes of

tele-medicine: Another important plan is to develop a simple web
portal that contains the followings inside a single instance of a web
browser: This work is in progress now.
o! Two video windows, one of each peer
o! A two-way text chat window, for exchange of prescriptions,
diagnoses
o! An information/status window filled by the server providing
information to each endpoint about the status of the
connection and the name and VoIP phone extension of the
remote party.
o! A link to call a remote party via VoIP software phone client.
5. Conclusion
The Nepal Wireless Networking project started with a dream, and the
initial dream has now become true. However, we have long way to go to
make it really useful for rural communities. Considering the very
unfavorable political circumstances that includes the autocratic rule of the
king, and Maoist insurgency in which it was implemented, the project was
quite revolutionary and has received attention from around the world. We
consider the following to be our main successes:
"! Extending access to the wealth of information and global
communication available on the Internet to an area where few
thought was possible.
"! Successfully piloting new technologies such as telemedicine, teleteaching and local e-commerce for helping the rural population.
"! Creating information and communication related business
opportunities in the rural area.

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"! Making every effort possible to adapt technologies to the local

context.
"! Maintaining the character of a grassroots, volunteer-run
organization and working on to develop the project to a profit
making business step by step. As Nepal stands on the horizon of a
bright new political future, we are appealing to government to
institute liberal policies that will help grass root projects to help
bring the promise of information technology to all.
We are quite optimistic that our next dream to replicate the network
through out Nepal will also come true. Thank you.

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