Hey, digital nomads: China opens internet gateway to Nepal through the Himalayas

A view of the Himalayas from Pokhara in Nepal. Photo credit: Joseph Jeong.

I was in Nepal a couple of months ago to attend a startup event and see first-hand the beginnings of tech entrepreneurship in the lap of the world’s highest mountain. In Bangalore, we hang out in pubs after an event; there, in Kathmandu, we took a mountain flight to Everest!

Flying over the high mountain ranges and verdant valleys, I daydreamed of how wonderful a place this would be for digital nomads and tech entrepreneurs who draw inspiration from idyllic surroundings. Cloud-based software would take on a whole new meaning.

The China-Nepal route will provide better service to Nepal and a transit service from India.

The main catch in this daydream, of course, is connectivity. Overall, Nepal’s average internet connection speed of 3.8 Mbps is better than India’s. But it’s mostly concentrated in Kathmandu, the capital of Nepal; internet infrastructure is poor in the northern mountains and valleys.

The good news is that it’s about to change. China Telecom today announced an agreement with Nepal Telecom to provide internet services through a new terrestrial cable route between the two countries. It runs through a gateway between Jilong county in China and Rasuwa district in Nepal.

“It is a direct route for traffic demand generated from Nepal to all over the world, and provides the highest quality service and low latency (time delay) solution for end users in Nepal,” says a statement from China Telecom.

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Transit route to India

Dreamy nomads and nature-loving techies will rejoice at the possibilities this could open up. Internet access across Nepali mountains will also give a boost to startups targeting the country’s nascent internet consumer market. The growing business connections between India and China could get a fillip as well, to mutual benefit.

The first mountain flight to Everest takes off at dawn from Kathmandu in Nepal. Photo credit: Tech in Asia.

“The China-Nepal route could provide better service to Nepal as well as a transit service from India,” points out Ou Yan, executive vice president of China Telecom, which took on the arduous task of laying cables through the Himalayas. China is also extending the Qinghai-Tibet rail line to the Jilong-Rasuwa gateway and could help Nepal extend it to Kathmandu.

See: In the shadow of Everest, a Startup Valley begins to emerge

“We’re looking forward to establishing Nepal as a transit hub through this route,” added Kamini Rajbhandari, MD of Nepal Telecom.