[Itpolicy-np] Sorry, the Indian news clip is here.

[mahabir at himanchal.org]

Hello All;

Sorry I forgot to paste the link. It is here.

http://mit.gov.in/csc/MediaBrief.asp

Mahabir

> Hello all;
>
> Please look at the news clip as what Indian government is doing. They are
> talking about setting up 100,000 rural community service centers across
> the country for their e-governance plan. Let us not just look at the news
> clip but think.
>
> I have heard that Mr. Kim from Korea is in Kathmandu with 30 million
> dollar support from Korean government. There is contribution from ABD or
> World Bank also. Do you think the e-governance plan that Mr. Kim is
> working on with HLCIT will succeed without building a reliable wireless
> broadband network infrastructure accross the country?
>
> Setting up wireless broadband network across the country is setting up
> information highway in Nepal. It is the duty of Nepal Government to set it
> up or at least take initiative to set it up. After the information highway
> is built up, it is the work of DDCs, VDCs, schools/colleges, private
> businesses and development agencies to expand the network to every corner
> of the country. In other word, once the information highway is built up,
> people will take initiative to bring the ICT to their homes and
> businesses. and will use it the way they would like. The innovativeness
> that Gaurab has mentioned comes after that.
>
> Take an example of many rural roads that VDCs, DDCs, and INGOs have built
> deep into the rural areas adjoining the major highways. They are still
> building the many more roads. If you have not been out of Kathmandu valley
> for quite a long time, please learn that there are many rural roads that
> go to different villages from Prithvi Highway, East West Highway,
> Siddhartha Highway, Arniko Highway etc.
>
> Let us think and work together.
>
> Thanks.
>
> Mahabir
>
>
>> I agree with Mahabir dai here. Believing that CDMA will bring in more
>> options is good - but it doesn't give the local users to be
>> innovative and build using newer and more adaptive technologies.
>> Moreover, this brings in 'vendor lock-in' in the form of Nepal
>> Telecom - not very good for the consumers.
>>
>> And, CDMA won't be able to provide the necessary bandwidth, and VSAT
>> are too expensive. NT/other operators can continue to deploy CDMA and
>> other forms of access, but that shouldn't rule out anyone else
>> providing innovative service. RTDF usage shouldn't be tied to certain
>> technologies. For that matter, any kind of policy tied to any
>> specific technology is a bad idea - it hinders innovation.
>>
>> and i guess we have already seen this with the nepal wireless
>> project, but not for the policies but for the way mahabir worked.
>>
>> thanks
>>
>>
>>
>> On Jan 26, 2007, at 4:27 AM, mahabir at himanchal.org wrote:
>>
>>> Hello  all;
>>>
>>> It is nice to read the recommendations that PS-4 study made. Thank you
>>> Gajendra ji for that. Please comment on my ideas if I am wrong.
>>>
>>> There is no doubt that CDMA will cover a large area of Nepal and will
>>> provide telephone and Internet servise to the people in the rural
>>> areas.
>>> However, CDMA has bandwidth constraint and the 153 kbps Internet
>>> connection is good for browsing only the Internet and send emails.
>>> However, it is not enough for delivering telemedicine and teleteaching
>>> requirements of the rural areas. Telemedicine and teleteaching are the
>>> needs of the rural areas where no doctors and qualified teachers are
>>> available.
>>>
>>> My strong point is that wireless is the only way to bring the medical
>>> doctors living and working in the city hospitals virtually to the
>>> villages. There is no way anybody can force them to go and work in the
>>> remote areas. If we find ways to connect them to the villages through
>>> wireless, there will be many doctors available to serve the rural
>>> areas
>>> people. The same is true with qualified teachers that are needed in
>>> the
>>> rural schools.
>>>
>>> Fiber optics is the best solution to provide the high bandwith
>>> connectivity for telemedicine and teleteaching purpose. However, it
>>> will
>>> not be practical in the Mahabharat and Himalayan region. VSAT is the
>>> easiest solutions, but who can afford the US$3 per kbps bandwidth
>>> charge?
>>>
>>> Therefore Wireless network is the best solution to meet the needs that
>>> CDMA can't not provide.
>>>
>>> Here is one idea. Nepal is about 1,400 km long from East to West.
>>> If we
>>> build relay towers at about a distance of 30 km apart, we will need to
>>> build about 45 relay towers. These towers should be built on the
>>> mountain
>>> ranges right after the Terai belt from where it can cover maximum
>>> areas to
>>> the North and to the South. From those towers, we need to build
>>> towers to
>>> the North at about the same distance. The average distance from
>>> South to
>>> North of Nepal is about 100 KM. That means we need to build three
>>> towers
>>> to cover North to South. That will make about 150 towers in total.
>>>
>>> Now NTC has already built many towers across the country. If we use
>>> their
>>> towers, we won't need to build more than 150 relay towers. Each tower
>>> should be equipped with  four to six radios that has 100Mbps to 150
>>> Mbps
>>> transmit power. These radios are available now in the market.
>>>
>>> If we use radios that have over 50 km to 100 km ranges in near line of
>>> sight (NLOS) situation, we won't even need to build 150 towers
>>> across the
>>> country.
>>>
>>> Now comes the VSAT. We can use VSAT in the areas where none of the
>>> technology as mentioned above can reach. Therefore we don't need to
>>> build
>>> 1,700 VSAT stations that the PS - 4 study has recomended.
>>>
>>> The truth is that it will take less than three years to get everything
>>> done. It is not that a hard task to do.
>>>
>>> Thanks.
>>>
>>> Mahabir Pun
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>> Dear Mahabirji   Khanalji and friends of the discussion group,
>>>>
>>>> May be  I can share outcomes of  PS-4  study (I