Wireless Network in the Himalayas

This article describes the personal narrative of David R. Hughes who helped bring internet technology to a 12,000 foot high community in Nepal and contributed towards creating the world's highest cybercafe. The Sherpa Wireless Project was envisioned by Tsering, a native of Namche, Nepal, who was educated in
Darjeeling and had traveled and worked in Asia and America where he saw the potential of the Internet. He persisted in spite of such obstacles as living in high mountains were communications are "difficult, unreliable, and expensive" as well as dealing with crises like Maoist insurgents blowing up telephone
company towers. The envisioned network included having the village entirely wireless - from a cyber cafe, to businesses and lodges, to schools, as well as to a base camp on Mount Everest.

In 2003, Tsering Sherpa, working for a partially Nepalese-government funded non government organisation (NGO), was introduced to David Hughes, of Old Colorado City Communications, over the Internet. Tsering sought to create economic opportunities for his villagers by giving them access to remote education opportunities as well as helping promote tourism - both key aspects to the economic wellbeing of the village. David Hughes, a 75-year old still pursuing his professional goals could help him do this.

Namche is described as a stop-over
place for climbers and tourists heading up Mount Everest. Children are faced with portering heavy loads for wealthy Westerners up and down the Solo Khumbu for $5.00. Essential to their livelihood is understanding English that they can qualify to be guides.

According to Hughes, the technology behind creating a wireless infrastructure for a remote village should not be difficult. Hughes states at "the simplest technical level, "operating computers or radios at 12,000 feet in Nepal is little different from operating and maintaining them in high Colorado.

But from that point on - the language differences, the levels of education and experience with computers or other technical devices - in a village which had
never used telephones, or had electricity, much less ‘personal’ computers, would make it a steep learning curve."

Some technical challenges that were overcome include the fact that base camp resides on the Khumbu Glacier which moves between three and four feet a day down the flat valley. This would
create difficulty having the satellite aligned and linked. Further, Base Camp is low in the valley blocked by the Nuptse and Lhotse mountain masses so there
would be no best line of site to the satellite low in the southern sky. The other smaller challenges include thick cloud formations and mountain storms.

From his office in Colorado, David Hughes studied topographic maps of Namche and the surrounding area as well as from aircrafts. His 'wireless site
survey’ included the number and types of radios, connectors, cables, power supplies, and all the myriad bits and pieces that would be needed in the whole village. One of the key aspect of pulling this project together was ensuring that nothing was overlooked or forgotten since Namche is over 100 miles from Kathmandu - if the missing item(s) could be procured there. The Access Point Radio was posted on the Stupa at the bottom of the Tibetan Marketplace. Tsering installed a 220v power line run to the inner wall of the Stupa, where the power line, decorated with prayer flags went from the pole right over a bank of Prayer Wheels.

After describing the setup of the network, and completing his description of the many technical
challenges, Hughes mentions the education component of the project. He states, "the hard part from this point on" is setting up a virtual classroom schedule with a class held in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania (USA) that is 10 hours behind time in Nepal.