Sorry state of Nepal's Internet affairs

Today I was going to write on a totally different topic, but due to my ongoing Nepal Telecommunications Corporation (NTC) connection problem, I am unable to research anything else up. As you can imagine, a writer without Google these days is like a... (uh oh, what’s the word for the oldest fish in the sea? never mind, can’t Google it now) fish without... (crap, wanted a better word than plain old water, but the internet is down).

See, what I mean? In my field, and perhaps yours, Google has become not only our friend, but also our always-helpful cousin-brother living next door. Without him or her, we can’t get anything done. I’m not sure if it’s the same in other professions (you tell me) but I suspect that doctors and lawyers depend on Google just as much for research as writers do. After all, who wants to hunt down a book or other printed material just to sound professional in an email?

My wife has solved this problem: She just googles me, as if I am some kind of Google Avatar possessing all the world’s Western knowledge, with my ears being the search box sitting between my blinking cursor of a tongue. I don’t really mind however, as when she asks me something that I don’t know, I just turn to cousin-computer Google, and start typing furiously.

But, today, I can’t. For a week now I have not been able to get online for more then a few minutes at a go. I use the NTC ADSL service, the one that costs less then NRs 2,000 per month. Today, I wish I could pay 10,000 more, just to get a connection. But my router is screaming at me “ADSL Media Down! – PPPoE1 stop PPP.”

If my computer had a voice, as it probably soon will, I expect this error message would sound like a military communication during frantic combat: “Blackhawk Down! Black Hawk Down! All Hands On Deck!”

And since I can’t heed the warning (I flat out don’t understand it), the result is a complete devastation on my troop advance. I am lying in a pool of my own dribble, and can’t move until the NTC medic arrives (if he ever will). So let me just go on from my gut, and write the rest of this article without one use of “the Goog.”

First of all, our options as Nepali Internet users are very limited. If you are a student, you are more than likely still huddled together in crowded Internet cafes that resemble telegraph booths, doing your homework or playing Warcraft, whichever one of those that you do every day. You are two or three to a computer, cause it’s cheaper.

If you are an individual home user, you are saddled with an Internet service provider like NTC, and not connected like I am now most of the time. Every once in a bit you get online, but then are forced off due to a line break, or your inverter’s battery just dies, or you forgot to pay your bill according to the Nepali calendar. And that pain is akin to yanking a lollipop out of the mouth of a baby. Whaaaa!

Mobile users don’t have it so bad, using NCELL’s something “G” data service, but then you are looking at the Internet thru the lens the size of a small microscope, and have no hope of comfortably watching a YouTube video.

As a Nepali business, you may fair better, if you bring a certified stamped and sealed letter from your accountant down to the Grand Puba at NTC, where you can then qualify for a 256 connection (about 20 percent faster then a 128 connection) – but then again, there is no guarantee of 24-hour service. Your generator may not run out of petro like a home user, but more likely than not, you will find yourself severed at a critical business moment.

However, if you are an NTC manager, you have it made, and probably have the fastest and most reliable service in the country, with your connection never going south.

The long and short of it is, even as the rest of the world moves into public outdoor Wi-Fi and fast, free internet for every living man, women, child and dog, we have one of the most substandard and unreliable network of service providers on the planet.

To be honest, I have tried just three in town, and all three have their strengths and weaknesses. NTC as noted is lacking in reliability (nothing new to any cellphone user). World Link has great service but is pricy, and the third, well, they went out of business – that was their strength.

In short, my hopes that the digital revolution would not divide the world into the un-connected and the well-connected, seems to be dashed, at least in this country. Other developing countries like...darn, can’t google those... don’t seem to be in the same boat. They are paying bills and doing other wonders thru mobiles in Africa, and in South America everyone is wired, even the local cold store.

So, what I pose to the readers of Republica today, at the end of this unsearched off-the-cuff tirade is this: Are we going to stand for this sorry state of internet affairs, or be happy with this on-again off-again existence?

Added after writing: NTC finally did correct my connection, after many anxious emails over the course of four or five days. The solution was: “We have manage some parameters in your DSL Profile in our side. Please change DSL Mode to G.DMT in your router.” Now, don’t I feel silly!

http://www.myrepublica.com/portal/index.php?action=news_details&news_id=23895