Internet services across Nepal were heavily disrupted yesterday evening as both Nepal Telecom and private-sector service providers such as Worldlink, DishHome, Ncell, and Vianet were affected. The Internet disruption in Nepal was due to over 6 billion rupees in dues owed to Indian telecom giant Airtel for internet bandwidth. The issue has pointed out Nepal’s heavy dependence on Indian companies for critical internet infrastructure.
According to Hari Dhakal, Manager and Spokesperson for Nepal Telecom, the time lag was caused by problems related to Nepali internet service providers who depend on foreign companies for their bandwidth. He confirmed that a study is being carried out to review the case and to solve the technical part that generated the outage.
The event leaves significant questions about Nepal’s reliance on external providers for internet services, as well as the financial management of such critical services. How this will be dealt with over the long run remains to be seen.