Welcome to Nepal Wireless Networking Project


 Bringing Wi-Fi technology to create new opportunities in the Himalayan region of Nepal

Mahabir Pun has been awarded Ramon Magsaysay Award 2007 for Community Leadership by the Ramon Magsaysay Foundation in Manila. Mahabir and the Nepal Wireless Team thanks everyone who has helped us get this recognition.

Why did we start this project?

Digital Divide" and "Digital Gap" have been big words in the past few years. Organizations like the United Nations and others have organized many conferences and have launched campaigns to address this issue. 

Developed and developing countries are talking to each other to find what they can do to bring the computers and the Internet within the reach of the poor people. Everybody seems very much worried about finding ways to make the digital gap narrower. So is the Nepal Wireless Networking Project, seriously speaking.

When and how did we start?

We had started the Nepal Wireless Networking Project as a pilot project from a small and remote area of Nepal with the help of foreign supporters and volunteers. We did several testing in  2002 to find out if it is possible to connect the villages to the nearest ISP in Pokhara. The test was successful.

In September 2003, we had connected five villages and expanded the network to two more villages later on. So far we have networked seven villages. The name of the villages are Nangi, Paudwar, Ghara, Tikot, Sikha, Ramche, Khibang and Ghorepani of Myagdi district, Nepal. The network is running despite some problems mainly the shortage of power and wireless devices. Now we have 13 villages connected in the network.

This is the picture of the first relay station we built in May 2002 on a 20m tall tree. The elevation of the relay station mountain is 10,800 ft (3,320m) high. We had used a normal 8-foot TV dish antenna as the reflector and a one liter measuring can as the feed. We are still using the same tree as the "relay tower" with different antenna and radios.

Current Projects in Progress

1. Kathmandu - Makawanpur and Kathmandu - Dolakha Networking Project is in progress.This project is funded by the Honorable Member of Parliament Mr. Krishna Dahal, Makawanpur District Development Committee and Kathmandu Model Hospital.

2. The work of extending the existing network of Myagdi to 10 more villages is in progress. International Telecommunication Union has provided  equipment for this phase. We hope to complete the project by November 2007.

The villages are wirelessly networked and connected to an ISP WorldLink, which is approx. 22 air miles (~34 km) away from Relay Station 1 in a city called Pokhara. Wlink is one of the sponsors of the broadband Internet connection to the villages in Myagdi district Nepal.

Who runs and maintains the network?

The Nepal Wireless Networking Project is now maintained and run by Himanchal Higher Secondary School, Nangi village, Nepal. However, this is an ambitious project and we want to go far beyond what we have done now by inviting people and communities that are interested to replicate such projects in other parts of Nepal.  We have now signed MoUs with several institutions and organizations to expand the network in other parts of Nepal and to make the wireless network as much beneficial as possible.

Who is our target?

The taget of this project are the people living in a Himalayan region of Nepal where there is almost no chance of getting the modern means of communication in near future. We are introducing the information technology to villagers, most of whom had never seen computers until a few years ago. Most of the villagers still have no idea as what the uses of the computers are. For the villagers, a computer is no more than a "mysterious box". Moreover, they have no idea what Internet is.

What is our goal?

Our initial goal is to introduce the "mysterious box" to the remote villages and show its real uses to the villagers. It is only after the villagers see what a computer does will they be motivated to learn about it and use it by themselves step by step. Each step they will take will be a step forward to bring the digitally divided countries closer. We believe that this is the right way to go.

What are the biggest challenges and problems?

The biggest challenges until September 2006 for this project was to find ways to work in the absence of flexible government law. Technically, we were running the network illegally because we had not gotten license that the government of Nepal required.

Besides, the biggest problem has been the criminalization of VOIP technology in Nepal. As a few scrupulous operators have used it for toll bypass, even using VOIP inside our own network is defined as illegal. There has been an instance when just possession of an IP phone has caused trouble to people. This is creating major problems, because we can't find any IP telephony equipment in the country and can't extend our own network. The authorities approach has been to ban the technology rather then catch the illegal toll-bypass operators.

The secondary problems was the ready availability of the wireless equipment in Nepal. Sometime we had to wait for several months just to get a small piece of equipment. Specially problematic are antennas and small accessories.

There are obviously some technical problems also. However, we think that we will be able to solve the technical problems in time if the political situation improves in Nepal.

After the restoration of democracy in Nepal in April 2006, the political situation is getting better in Nepal. Therefore we don't have as much risk now as it was before to set up Wi-fi network. Wi-fi technology (2.4 GHz and 5.8 GHz) has been de-licensed since Setpember 2006, and it has been easier to import and set up wireless network. Our team members along with the people working in the wireless networking field had to lobby hard to de-license the Wi-fi bands.

What we are lobbying for now?

Nepal Wireless Networking Project along with individuals and organization working in the field of wireless networking has been lobbying for opening up of VOIP and provision for rural and community ISPs in Nepal. VOIP technology itself is difficult to use in Nepal. The technology itself has been criminalized in Nepal. Our effort has been to open up use of VOIP so that we can use it freely in our own network. After the changed political scenario, we had also put forward the concept of Rural and community ISPs.

For the last one year, team leader Mahabir Pun has spent more time in Kathmandu making presentation to lawmakers and officials of the importance of these things for rural communications. The team leader gave presentations to member of parliaments, political leaders and government officials telling how Wi-fi technology can be very useful for the people living in the remote areas. As a result the government has brought a new law on Rural and Community ISPs within Nepal reducing the license fee to about USD3 for using VSAT in the rural areas and  starting a rural ISP. Originally the license fee was almost USD 5,000. The government has also opened up PC to PC and IP to IP VoIP in September 2007.

What can you see in this site?

In this website, we are trying to explain how the idea came about, what we tried, what we have done so far, what we are doing with it, what our future plans are, and how we can work together. If you like the idea, you are welcomed to be a part of this campaign.

Who is the sponsor of this site?

Jonni Lehtiranta from Finland is the sponsor of this website. He is helping to create and maintain this website from his own server. He visited Nangi village, Nepal in 2002 and 2004 and stayed a total of more than two months. Jonni is back to Nangi in Sptember 2007 for three weeks.