Current Status of Information and Communication Technology Current Status of Information and Communication Technology in Nepal Prashant Manandhar Nepal Research & Education Network (NREN). Kathmandu, Nepal

Overview of Nepal Area: 147,797 Sq. Km Area: 147,797 Sq. Km Population in million:27.05 Population in million:27.05 Rural Population:75.5% Rural Population:75.5% Key Economic Sectors: Key Economic Sectors: Agriculture and Tourism Agriculture and Tourism Literacy in English:18% Literacy in English:18% Literacy rate55% Literacy rate55% Computer ownership per 100 inhabitants:4.5 Computer ownership per 100 inhabitants:4.5 Telephone lines per 100 inhabitants:6.0 Telephone lines per 100 inhabitants:6.0 Internet users per 100 inhabitants:3.0 Internet users per 100 inhabitants:3.0 National bandwidth capacity within the country:1000:1000 Mbps National bandwidth capacity within the country:1000:1000 Mbps National average bandwidth at NPIX:18~25 Mpbs National average bandwidth at NPIX:18~25 Mpbs International bandwidth100:72 Mbps International bandwidth100:72 Mbps

Present Status of ICT Internet Status Start Leased Line Cable and Radio Modems ((19 Kbps-64Kbps) for Data in early Start of ISDN and Wireless Internet Service – 2002 Establishment of Nepal Internet Exchange (npIX) – 2002 Start of Wireless broadband Service – 2003 Start of Cable Internet Service – 2004 Metro Ethernet to Home Internet – 2005 Fiber Optics laid in National East-West Highway 2005 purposes for Data and Voice Telecom only, Gateway connection with BSNL, India, Next Phase to China. Total Number of Internet Users – ~550,000, Number of ISPs – 26 Number of Optical Fiber provider for cable TV- 5 Number of Optical Fiber provider for Internet - 7 Number of VSAT Network Service Providers – 8

Present Status of ICT ICT Infrastructure and Services Telephone Service Providers – 3(NTC, UTL,STM) PSTN Fixed Line Telephones – Mobile Phone Service Provider – 3 (NTC, Spice Nepal, UTL) Mobile Phone Subscribers GSM & CDMA – Data not upto-date, as all providers are rapidly expanding Number of Fax Mail Service Providers – 6 Number of Satellite Telephone Service Providers – 3 Number of Radio Paging Service Providers – 3 Number of Local Data Network Service Providers – 2 Radio broadcast stations: SW 1,MW 6, FM 22, (Radios: 2,800,000, costs < $1). Television broadcast stations: 5 (Televisions: 700,000)

Establishment of NREN Nepal Research and Education Network (NREN) has been established as a facilitator to support for advanced research and education network through the means of Information and Communication Technology and as a knowledge center to support good ICT initiatives and researcher in the country. This entity has been established as a non-profit network under the Prime College, affiliated to National Tribhuwan National University, collaboration with other Universities, Education Institutes, Research Institutions, National IX, National Telecom, Government and Non Government Organizations, Industry association, Interested Educationists and Individuals.

Current NREN Activity Research in various ICT fields as follow:. Using SIP for the voice communication to different remote areas via the WI- FI devices and The monitoring and management system has been developed for each SIP locations. The open source application has been use for this system. Developed E-learning for higher education at the villages and remore areas in local language, Intranet Portal. Telemedicine for Health Post in the villages and Video Conference for Telemedicine will be implement soon within the villages and remote areas. Hot Spot systems and its applications Web GIS Mesh WI-FI implementation is under process. All members will be connecting through Optical Fibre very soon. ICT Troubleshooting knowledgebase information system in local Nepali language for communities on developing process.

Current IT infrastructure for NREN For Research and training Labs: Routers: Cisco 1750 : 2 Routers: Cisco 1700 Series : 20 CISCO Catalyst 2950 Switch (24-port Fast Ethernet) : 8 Servers Linux and FreeBSD Server Systems: 2 Windows 2003 Intranet Server : 1 Normal PCs and Workstations using Windows, Linux - 11 Wireless Networking Experiment Center This lab is used for research, demonstration and testing of advanced networks and latest technologies by Local ISPs, NPIX and researchers. Research on Attenuation in Optical Fiber for Data and Voice Communications. But, not sufficient Tools and Measurement devices for Optical Fibers.

Network of Nepal Telecom Optical Fiber Present Optical Fiber Backbone Network of Nepal Telecom

Network of Nepal Telecom Optical Fiber Present Optical Fiber Backbone: Route Length of East-West OF Network: Approx. 900 Km (Single Mode- 24 Core fibers, 3x40/33 mm HDPE ducts laid in parallel). Backbone capacity: STM-4 (252 E1). SDH Equipments (Siemens): 6xSTM-16, 19xSTM-4 & 54xSTM-1. Links 18 districts and 79 Exchanges Lamahi – Kohalpur – Lamki - Dhangadhi - Mahendranagar section yet to be completed (approx. 350 Km)

Network of Nepal Telecom Optical Fiber NG-SDH Optical Fiber Network (Regional, Sub-Regional and Arniko Highway project):

Network of Nepal Telecom Optical Fiber Arniko Highway NG-SDH Backbone: Survey & Design review work completed Expected project execution date:- by end of 2007 Funding:- Arniko Highway NG-SDH project with grant from Government of China and other by NT’s own fund Proposed Regional/Sub-Regional NG-SDH Optical Fiber Backbone: Based on Next Generation(NG)/MSTP platform and with DWDM (1st time in NT’s network) Broadband TDM & IP Backbone with the same SDH equipment. All equipments are OMSN Nodes (voice, data and video on single platform, MSTP). Core Router/L3 switch at each station( with FE, GE, E1 & STM-1 interface). DWDM equipments are used between Hetauda and Patan and other stations are also ready for DWDM connection( by color interface/transponder) All Regional Nodes are STM-64 (10G) type & Sub-Regional nodes are STM-16 (2.5 G) type. Out of 10G bandwidth 2.5G allocated for Data services and SAN services. TDM and IP bandwidth can be adjusted dynamically. Application: inter-exchange connectivity, TDM services, carry secured Broadband data/video services like ADSL, VPN, IP-TV, VoD, Triple-play & other IP based services.

Network of Nepal Telecom Optical Fiber Features: proposed Arniko Highway Optical Fiber Backbone: Link Kathmandu with Khasa, China via Tatopani (approx. 115 Km) Sixteen (16) nodes between Kathmandu and Tatopani (5x STM-16 nodes, 4x STM- 4 nodes and 7xSTM-1 nodes) with PoS and FE interface. Type of OF cable: 36 fiber, single mode (G.652, 1310/1550 nm) Application: Interconnectivity of exchanges in the route, Build information highway between Nepal & China, Create an alternate international gateway route via Hong Kong( no dependency on present satellite link with limited resource), Enhancement of ICT development in Nepal, Greatly help ISD and internet traffic, can create information highway between India and China etc. India’s big operators like Bharati & Reliance have already requested to get bandwidth in this route.

Network of Nepal Telecom Optical Fiber Project Status: In process Expected project execution date: by end of 2007 Features of proposed NG- SDH network in Kathmandu valley: 7x STM-64 NG-SDH nodes (with Router) & up- gradation of other nodes Multiple ring concept Introduction of DWDM concept

Member NREN Nepal Wireless Project 1997 started in one village (Himanchal Higher Secondary School, Nangi village). Introduced 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 and Internet are. Nangi village is located in north west of Nepal on the Annapurna and Dhaulagiri ranges of the Himalayas. Reaching Nangi usually requires two to three days of traveling from Nepal’s capital city, Kathmandu. From Kathmandu, it is a seven hour bus ride or 35 minute plane trip to Pokhara, the second largest city in Nepal. The elevation of Nangi village is about 2,260 m. (7,345 ft). Target group is the people living in the remote villages of Nepal, where villagers have no means of modern communication means. The total numbers of 19 Wi-Fi nodes in this villages and its growing. This project is implementing in next District called Makwanpur (central Region of Neal) and the total numbers of 10 Wi-Fi nodes.

Nepal Wireless Project

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