The Internet Governance Ecosystem in Nepal

The Internet Governance Ecosystem in Nepal Presented By: Binay Bohra, Managing Director, Vianet Communications , Past President ISPAN

At the beginning? • Private sector played a key role • 1994 email was introduced using international dial up link sending and receiving emails in batch. • Mercantile was responsible to kick start nepal to internet age • .np doman registration started by Mercantile 02/05/2016 Vianet Communications Pvt. Ltd

In the absence of regulation or without any form of understanding, Internet was ushered in the country 02/05/2016 Vianet Communications Pvt. Ltd

Dial up Email as a service started - INGOs /Diplomatic missions were early users • Almost zero govt. role to kickstart internet in Nepal

History of Internet • Customers were readily available • Started with enterprise customers • Charges were by the minute • All internet traffic came via satellite connectivity • Dial up meant payment was per minute- per Kb. • Separate payment to voice operator NTC per minute phone charges and per Kb to ISP

MOIC started to now distribute licenses to ISPs • MOIC became one of the important component in the Internet Governance Ecosystem • Consequently telecom sector deregulation was introduced • Telecom act and regulation 2053 was promulgated with the help of World Bank ,ushering the Internet age in Nepal

With the introduction of deregulation in the country , it gave rise to many stake holders at once. • Users, general consumers, infrastructure service providers/ telecom service providers- regulator, govt. policy body , academia, portals news sites ,e-commerce and whole new communities proliferated like niug/ispan/npix/sanog/isoc Nepal chapter etc

Public places like Cyber-cafes became popular • They served a very useful purpose to popularize internet • Became a hub for people wanting to connect, get entertained or communicate

With the advent broadband lot of disruption across the board • Incumbent telecoms per minute voice model came under threat. • Voice arbitrage in international calling minutes bought in legal challenges to regulators • Traditional way of doing business like the media also got disrupted • With the advent of social media whole new challenges are thrown in like old biz model disruption/ analog to digital

Government introduced Digital Transaction Act popularly known as the “Cyber Law” • It gave protection and legality to digital businesses ,content as well as consumers but is in need of amendments with the moving times,which is lacking • Telecom acts has also not been timely amended creating friction in the ecosystem

We have seen ISPs being forced to filter content and block content • Invited privacy challenges , what to block what not to? • With the help of civil society , privacy advocates a successful push-back was undertaken to put pressures on govt/regulator to respect privacy and unhindered internet access.

For maintaining safety and law and order for online environment, security agencies want access to information and data , how much to give, how to give , how to record and how much to record ? • This has since then become a big debate, in the context of privacy ,economic viability for providers and delivering justice.

Digital Divide • The right to access to internet is a big challenge in our country. • Large portion of the population in the rural area still lack access to internet. • Thousands of school children in those areas do not have access to internet and content.

With the help of RTDF fund , regulator with the help of service providers is trying to get internet to the rural areas , • Reducing the digital divide and help in creating/generating content • Also the popularizing of mobile technology like 3G/4G and reduction in cost will help reduce the divide but may not be as effective as fixed broadband initiative.

Now the challenge is to provide everyone access to affordable broadband internet where no provider monopolizes pricing, connectivity and content, while creating safe online environment and also respecting the privacy of the consumers by govt. authorities and content providers.

All stake holders in the internet governance ecosystem need to work together towards this noble goal.

THANK YOU 02/05/2016 Vianet Communications Pvt. Ltd

The Internet Governance Ecosystem in Nepal