Mahabir pun demands of TV White space in Nepal

April 26, 2016: Mahabir pun, the winner of Magsaysay award, is one of the most prominent, independent and dedicated personnel in Nepal to develop the communication services (internet) in remote mountainous areas. He has been working continuously to establish wireless network in rural Nepal and provide ICT services to the people living in those areas. He was successful in overcoming the challenges (the insurgency, the remoteness, unavailability of electricity, computers etc), to provide wireless communication in more than 100 villages by Wi-Fi technology. The first was his own village Nangi (in Myagdi district of Nepal) and after expansion, he was able to use Internet for distant learning in schools, health care, e-commerce and weather monitoring. 

Ever since he has been lobbying government and different organization in support of the extension of wireless services to several unconnected remote villages. Now that it is a world trend for the use of TV white space technology for rural broadband internet connection, Mr. Pun is certain that the TVWS can be used for the wide expansion of the rural broadband coverage, that is not feasible from a cellular network or optical fiber network. He expressed his dissatisfaction over the non utilization of Remote telecommunication development fund (RTDF) for the betterment of remote wireless connectivity. It is also known that he has already put forward both of his demands (TVWS and RTDF) to Ministry of Information and Communication. As it is already known that the broadband connectivity has great impact on the economy, using the RTDF in white space technology for wider broadband connection in remote areas will boost up the economy of the country as a whole.

TVWS (TV white spaces) refers to the unused frequencies in Television broadcasting that are either between the already operational TV channels or freed from usage due to the switching of analog to digital TV. It could co-exist in between those TV channels by making it dynamic allocation through spectrum sensing or power limitations. As the unused frequencies in between 50 MHz to 700 MHz having better propagation characteristics and penetration provide higher coverage (indoors and outdoors) without high investment in infrastructure, TVWS can be used for middle mile back hauling for cellular/WiFi or Super WiFi in remote areas. So this could be a cost effective way for providing remote wireless connectivity and bridge the digital divide in the country.  The technology can be also used for emergency communication at the time of disaster.

Microsoft, one of the partner in white space coalition (already used in 15 countries) is planning to roll out the technology on a massive scale in India (done with the pilot) but the issue of free spectrum is hindering the deployment on that scale. 

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A year since the Gorkha earthquake

April 24, 2016: It has been a year that the mega Earthquake (epicenter Gorkha) on Baishak 12, 2072 shooked us, destroying peoples livelihood and infrastructures, that took lives of thousands of people and tens of thousands were injured. It was a massive disaster here in the central hilly regions of Nepal including 14 districts (From Gorkha to Sindhuli), destroying many heritage sites including Dharhara Tower (9 storey), Basantapur Temple. People were bound to live outside their homes for months due to the collapse of their homes or serious devastation or the fear from recurring aftershocks.

A year on since the earthquake, there has no major changes to the lives of those who are living in temporary shelters nor the reconstruction of the heritage sites has begun yet. New constitution has been promulgated, New government has been formed, but the misery of the people remains the same. We even have gone through the months long barricade in the border between Nepal and India, that seriously downgraded the already slowed economy and the daily lives were badly affected due to shortage of essential supplies. 

Even now, there is no concrete implementation way forward to make any better for the huge no of earthquake affected people. Blame the opportunistic politics for the benefit of ones and their circum around (be it their relatives or the political party itself), Blame the bureaucracy (permanent government) that cannot get rid of long procedural delays and unmanageable human resources, and even blame peoples indifference to the misery of the affected people that they could not adequately pressurize their government for immediate reconstruction.

I may not be hopeful for what will be done immediately but I definitely wish for a much better and prosperous Nepal, that i could possibly see in my life.

There is no any mere issue that make me feel proud of my Government. If none of them shall do it, I wonder what should we prefer: the system, the party or the leader. In democracy, we always choose the better among the worsts. Me await new election.

A brick shows that Dharhara was built in 1991 after the major Earthquake in 1990.

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Smart Digital life

April 22, 2016:

Ram wakes up to the beeps from the alarm clock in his smartphone at 6 am. He checks his Facebook and twitter account if something important is being shared there, along with the no of likes/retweets of his yesterdays post, even while defecation. After drinking water, he starts the morning walk with the opening of pedometer app in his mobile. He does not stop till the distance covered exceeds 5 km. He is in the fourth day of the month long six pack abs work out in his app. He uses his mobile as a stop watch for the 20s sit up, dances to Youtube streaming in his TV and after resting for 5 minutes, sips a cup of tea. 

He then checks his "to do list" in his mobile, organize his important work for the day with the timeline and sets reminder for the most important ones.

After having meal at 9 am, prepares to leave to office. For his attire to office, he then checks the weather forecast app to make his wear suit today's weather along with decision to carry umbrella or not.

He searches for the bus time through the bus app, to reach in his nearest stop and plans accordingly.

He reaches the bus stop 5 min before the time mentioned there. The bus comes exactly 2 minutes after the scheduled time. He checks his social media and daily news in his mobile on the way to office. 

After reaching office, He puts his finger in the fingerprint time attendance machine at 9:55 am. 

He then starts his work at office at first by checking the official email account. He then starts the important work listed in his "to do list" app synchronized to that in his mobile. After completing the work, he tags the task in the app as done which removes it from the list.

He even has a list of paper letters by his side, which he forwards to respective section by sending the scanned copy. He even wonders when he can get rid of all these paper work with which he believes he can be more efficient and save all those paper costs. 

He gets a message from his brother Shyam, asking him to pay for the monthly electricity bills which was supposed to be paid by Shyam but could not manage due to urgent meetings. His brother has even forwarded the scanned bill in Viber. He pays the bill from online payment portal.

He then gets a call from online shopping delivery guy, waiting outside his office to deliver him the ordered products that he ordered yesterday.

After having lunch, he is reminded from the alarm in his phone for the regular staff meeting to commence in 5 minutes. He syncs his tablets with list of agenda in the regular meeting. After forging some conclusion, he shares the MOM with all of the attendees through official cloud messaging.

Notification in Viber group from a friend, asking if they can go to Friday first movie, after office. His friend buys the ticket online, other friends share the money in his e-wallet account.

He then calls his mom to inform her of being late. As she was talking to her sisters living abroad in Viber, the phone call muted her call. She gives consent for his late coming due to the rush to continue talking with her sister.

WiFi available in a Taxi from a outdoor unit.

Signing out of office, he takes a taxi to cinema hall, in the way he compares the ride bill with that of taxi meter app. Asks the driver of the possible fault in the taxi meter repeatedly but he does not respond. So he complains that to Nepal police through Hamro police app, mentioning the time of possible stop at the cinema hall. Traffic police reaches there before he arrives. So he pays the bill amounted in the taxi meter app (after verification from Traffic police).

After the movie, they go to Thamel to have some snacks and drinks. he shares the photo of the busy streets through the free WiFi in Thamel. He even mentions that sometimes the joy of sharing the picture in social media is more than actually being with the friends for such gathering, in all of his social medias including his own personal photography fb page (common for city dwellers).
On the way to home, he gets a call from his boss to forward him the current performance of the system that he works with. He then remotely logs in to his computer at office, checks the performance and shares it to his boss.
As tomorrow is a weekend (the only one in Nepal), he disables the alarm clock for Saturday to sleep longer and puts the phone in sleep mode after-all the phone also needs a nice sleep with all those handling throughout the day.

** Solely based on my Imagination***

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