Download Villages of Nepal

Connecting Rural Nepal to
the Global Village
Some Examples and Some Efforts
Mahabir Pun
Team Leader, Nepal Wireless Networking Project
Chairman, E-Networking Research and Development
Vice Chairman, Nepal Research and Education Network
Director of Public Relation, Open Learning Exchange Nepal
Program Director, Himanchal Education Foundation
Background of the Area
Villages of Nepal
• Nangi Village
– Altitude - 2,360m
– Population 780
Within project areas, Nangi is the hub of wireless network and other community
development activities.
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Villages of Nepal
• Tikot Village
– Altitude - 2,250m
– Population - 845
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Villages of Nepal
• Paudwar Village
– Altitude - 2,180m
– Population – 2,250
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Villages of Nepal
• Shikha Village
– Altitude - 2,145m
– Population – 1,200
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Villages of Nepal
• Gharamdi Village
– Altitude – 2,100m
– Population – 700
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Implementation Phases
• Current State
• 25 villages connected in Myagdi, Kaski and Parbat Districts
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Beginning of Nepal Wireless Networking Project
Started in 2001 with
• Two Aeronet PCI Wireless Card Four D-Link DWL–
900AP 60 mw Indoor radios and different homebuild antennas.
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Implementation Phases
• Testing Phase (Year 2002) started with the technical
support of foreign volunteers.
• 2 villages were connected
• Project was started without money and technical knowledge
• We had to work on a phased approach with the help of
international volunteers.
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Implementation Phases
• Phase I (Year 2003)
• 5 villages connected
• Financial support by Donald Strauss Foundation that came through
Mark Michalaski, the undergraduate student of the Univeristy of
California at Los Angeles
• Technical support of international volunteers
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Implementation Phases
• Phase II (Year 2005)
• 7 villages connected
• Financial support by the Poverty Alleviation Fund - Nepal (funded
by World Bank)
• Project was implemented at the peak of the political conflict in
Nepal
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Technology Setup
• Canopy Backhaul at Relay Station
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Technology Setup
• Using large trees as relay towers has worked well
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Technology Setup
• Using large trees as relay towers has worked well
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Technology Setup
• Putting a grid antenna
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Electrical Power Management
Power Sources:
• Power from Main grid line in some villages and
some villages have power from micro hydro
generators
• Solar power at the relay stations and five
villages
• Wind and bicycle generator at relay stations for
back up in monsoon season
• Deep Cycle Batteries for storage
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Electrical Power Management
• Relay Station 1 and 2 at an elevation of 10,500 ft and 11,800 ft
• Operated by solar power
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Electrical Power Management
• Bicycle and Wind Generator at the Relay Station
• Used as a back-up power in monsoon
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Access Technology Used
• Used PC and laptops collected from different
sources
• VoIP equipment such as Sipura SPA –3000,
GrandStream IP phones and Cisco ATA adaptors
• Network camera such as Axis 214 PTZ camera
for teleteaching. Linksys, Panasonic, Polycom
network and video conferencing cameras for
telemedicine program
• VLC, Open source software for video
conferencing
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Transport Technology Used
• 2.4 GHz Wi-fi radios (802.11b/g)
produced by different manufacturers
• 5.8 GHz Motorola Canopies for backhaul
• MikroTik Routerboards
• 19 dBi homemade grid antennas
• 24 dBi grid antennas
• Linksys and Soekris Routers
• Switches of different brands
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Network Server
Runs a Fedora Core Linux distribution with
additional third party software. Currently, the
server runs the following software packages.
• Asterisk PBX for to VoIP calls
• phpBB , for sharing messages, local news
• Apache and the Intranet Server
• Samba - The Windows File Server and Master Browser
• MySQL
• WebMin
• SSH
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Wireless Network Server
• Linux Server in Pokhara with Phillip Mucci, the volunteer
PAGE 22
Wireless Network Usage
• Healthcare: Tele-Medicine
• Lila Pun, a village worker in Nangi talking to doctor in city hospital
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Wireless Network Usage
• Communications: Communication Center
Villagers of Khibang reading online newspaper
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Website
• Visit local homepage to see some examples of how the
villagers are using the network.
Link to the Local Homepage is as follows.
• http://www.nepalwireless.com.np
Bulletin Board is not accessible from outside for
everybody. It is password protected to save it from the
spammers.
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Wireless Network Usage
• News and Bulletin: Nepal Wireless Local Homepage
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Goals and Objectives of the Wireless Project
• Education
– Increase opportunities in community schools by
» creating a live tele-teaching program
» providing contents in local languages to the students and villagers
• Healthcare
– establish a tele-hospital in urban area and link it to the district
level hospitals and rural health centers
– provide medical assistances to the villagers through
telemedicine program
• Communication
– increase communication facilities in the isolated rural areas by
providing
» VoIP phone
» video conferencing facilities
» bulletin board
» internet services
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Goals and Objectives of the Wireless Network Project
• Local e-Commerce
– help villagers sell and buy their products in the local market
through local intranet and internet
• Jobs and Business Opportunities
– generate jobs for younger generation locally through
» remittance services
» VoIP phone services for International calls
» credit card transaction services for the tourists
» secretarial services (photo copy, photo print, document
print)
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Present Management Structure
•
The project at present is a public enterprise run
by a school
• It works with the villagers to build
communication centers
• It does not provide services directly to the
end-users.
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Business Model
• Exisiting Revenue Streams of the village centers
for sustainability
– Internet usage fee on hourly basis
– Monthly fee to the teachers and students
– Telephone call fees
– Photocopying, photo printing etc. fees
– Remittance service fees
– Computer training fees in some villages
• Revenue Streams for the project
– ~10% to 15% additional charges for the tele-centers telephone
bill
– Monthly fee to the rural tele-centers for Internet connectivity;
current charges range between $10 to $25 per month per village
– Remittance and credit card transaction services fees
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Business Model
• Some of the jobs created by the project
– Project has created some full-time and part-time jobs as well as
some volunteer opportunities
– Business opportunities for wireless equipment, computer and
accessories
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Assistances Provided for Other Wireless Projects
• Project helped other wireless projects in
different parts of Nepal
– Makawanpur Network financially supported by the
District Government and the Member of Parliament.
– Dolakha Wireless Network supported by Katmandu
Model Hospital
– Palpa Wireless Network financially supported by
Winrock Internationals
– Bajhang Network Supported by Poverty Alleviation
Fund – Nepal
– Imja Wireless Network supported by Keio University –
Japan for monitoring Imja Galcial lake with the
technical support of Nepal Research and Education
Network (NREN).
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Assistance for Other Wireless Projects
• Makawanpur – Kathmandu – Dolakha Network
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Assistance for Other Wireless Projects
• Palpa Network from Tansen for Winrock Internatioal
PAGE 34
Project with Nepal Research and Education Network
Imja Galcial Lake Monitoring Network from the lake to
Namche Bazaar for Keio University Japan and NREN
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Project with Nepal Research and Education Network
• Imja Galcial Retreat and growing Lake from
1962 to 2005
Source: ICIMOD
•CORONA
•SPACE SHUTTLE
15 DEC 1962
DEC 1983
•ENVISAT, ASAR, 18 October 2007
•LANDSAT TM
1992
Quickbird Jan. 2006
•IRS ID PAN 19
MAR 2001
•IRS LISS3 2005
PAGE 36
Project with Nepal Research and Education Network
•
Chhukung Relay at 5,100m near Imja Lake
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Project with Nepal Research and Education Network
Link to the Field Servers in Imja Region and Namche
Bazar region to see near real time photos of the lake and
Namche Bazar. You can also visit the following site and
see the data of the climate collected by the field servers.
http://fsds.dc.affrc.go.jp/data4/Himalayan/
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Major Partners
• Nepal Research and Education Network
(http://nren.net.np) – For research, R&D, and
telemedicine, climate monitoring, and system
administration
• Open Learning Exchange Nepal (http://olenepal.org)
- For developing educational contents in local language
• E-Networking Research and Development
(http://enrd.org) – For building wireless network and
maintenance
• Thamel.com – For introducing remittance service and
credit card transaction service in rural areas
• Universities – National & International for volunteers
• Hospitals – Kathmandu Model Hospital, Hetaunda
Hospital, Dolakha Hospital, Om Hospital for telemedicine
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Current Projects
Current Project
Current Project is being Supported by APT
Pokhara Mustang Broadband Information Highway ~90 km
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APT Project Site: Mustang District
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APT Project Site: Mustang District
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APT Project Site: Mustang District
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Proposed Programs in Mustang
• Developing a business partnership with District
Government, and Local Business people to start a local
Internet Service Provider business.
• Working with Open Learning Exchange – Nepal and
Department of Education to introduce “One Laptop Per
Child Project”. Seven schools has been selected.
• Setting up telemedicine centers in two villages.
• Providing Internet connectivity and Internet related
services to the people such as VoIP, credit card
transaction, remittance, etc.
• Working on setting up field servers in three sites to
collect data related to climate change in the Himalayas
and provide those data to the researchers.
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One Laptop Per Child Project with OLE - Nepal
• OLPC Laptops in Classrooms Distributed by
Open Learning Exchange - Nepal in Schools
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Advocating with the government of Nepal for Fiber line sharing
Asking Government to share fiber cable line with private operators
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DONATE ONE DOLLAR A MONTH
A Campaign
TO BUILD WIRELESS BROADBAND INFORMATION HIGHWAY ACROSS NEPAL
Wireless Technology for :
Education
Health care (telemedicine)
Communication (telephone/ email)
Local business
Access to news and information
Contact:
Mahabir Pun
[email protected]
Visit and Donate:
http://www.himanchal.org
http://www.nepalwireless.net
http://www.nepalwireless.thamel.com
Long Term Business and Sustainability Plan
• For long term sustainability
– Setup a business enterprise that includes public and private
stakeholders
• Potential Public Partners
– Local Governments
– Community Schools
– Local Clubs
– Rural Clinics
– Ministry of Education
– Ministry of Health
– Ministry of Local Development
• Private Partners
– Local Business Persons
– Local Entrepreneurs
– Other Investors
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Outcome of the Project
• 2.4 GHz and 5.8 GHz bands have been delicensed in Nepal
• License fee to use VSAT and to become rural
Internet Service Provider has been reduced to
less than $3 from more than US$5,000.
• VoIP (IP to IP) phone services has been made
legal.
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Lessons Learned
Technical Lessons
• The capability of 802.11b/g devices exceed more than
manufacturer specification
• Wi-fi device is useful for delivering services such as
video conferencing, tele-teaching, tele-training etc, other
than just connecting computers to the Internet
• Long-range network must have to have strong backbone
• Management and technical training should be provided
to local people, which is critical to the technical
sustainability
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Lessons Learned
Practical Lessons
• As many services as possible should be provided
to the users to make it sustained and to increase
the number of users such as educational, health,
communication, remittance, e-commerce etc.
• Networking projects create job opportunities.
• Communities must be given responsibilities for
managing and maintaining a network.
• Wireless network can be useful for monitoring the
climate change and for preventing disasters
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Replication
It is being replicated in other
parts of Nepal.
Is it replicable in other parts of
the world?
Answer – Technically, yes it is.
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What next?
• There are over 8,000 villages in Nepal with more than
15 million people living in rural areas of Nepal.
• So far we have connected:
– 45 villages in 7 Districts
– Approximate population of 60,000
– 20 High Schools with about 4,500 Students
There is a long way to go…
WE ARE WORKING TO CONNECT ALL THE
VILLAGES IN NEPAL.
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Contact
• For More Information
– Please Visit:
» http://www.himanchal.org
» http://nren.net.np
» http://www.olenepal.org
» http://www.enrd.org
» http://www.nepalwireless.net
– Contact:
» [email protected]
» Phone: 977 9841592361 (mobile in Nepal)
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