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

Sat Jan 27 12:16:55 GMT 2007

Sad but true that our Government is lagging behind than our neighbours.
When I recall my visit to India back in 1989, only few top government
offices were equipped with XT computers while, THEN, I had the
opportunity to learn Word Star 2.0 being a school chap.

Shall we analyze where did we go wrong and learn from our mistakes and
failures ?

During the first interaction session of e-governance, in NITC, I had
asked the floor that :

ARE WE TARGETTING 80% RURAL POPULATION OR 20% URBAN POPULATION ?

If ADB is providing grant/loan/subsidy to the government, let's work
together in PPP model. Let us all work out on plans that suits our
country and not just copy the model of developed country.

OTHERWISE, WE WILL BE ADDING ANOTHER CONCRETE WALL TO HIDE DIGITAL DIVIDE.

Pavan

On 1/27/2007, "mahabir at himanchal.org" <mahabir at himanchal.org> wrote:

>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
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