UNCTAD Regional Roundtable on Electronic Commerce and Development,

1

• UNCTAD Regional Roundtable on Electronic Commerce
  and Development,
• Colombo (Sri Lanka) 25-27 October 1999
• LDCs and e-commerce
• The example of Nepal
• Shashank Kansal,
• President/CEO - Digital Telecom International
• Secretary General - Asia Pacific Trade Point
  Forum (APTPF)
• Voice977-98102-0076, Fax[phone] GPO
  Box10528, Kathmandu, Nepal.
• httpwww.nepalonline.net Shashank_at_balaji.com.np

2
1999

• VSAT International Connectivity Allowed
• UNLIMITED Bandwidth available
• Prices Most Competitive in South-Asia (US30 per
  month/unlimited access vs previous rates of
  US2/hour)
• New Telecom Opportunities like GSM and Paging
  start operations
• Government takes initiatives to bring the IT on
  the forefront for Development.

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Advantages and Limitations

• Price reduction or Access
• Hosting content in Nepal with huge capacity
  availability.
• More POPs around the country - Nation Wide
  E-Commerce initiative.
• Number of users likely to more than treble
• WebSite creations!
• Online Payment via Cyber Cash, Credit Card etc.
  (Offshore)
• Government slow on Law, Banking, Infrastructure.
• Call Centers, Unique in World !!!

4
1998 The Year of Convergence

• More POPs outside Kathmandu
• No bandwidth expansion (via NTC) as market
  expects NTA to open up the skies - VSAT. Service
  is affected.
• Customer support improves as market focus shifts
  to quality to customer support and response.
• Several new businesses get new opportunity with
  internet.

5
1996-1997

• Three private ISPs in the country
• Domain services available free
• NGO, INGO, Govt. Organizations, Travel Agencies,
  Small Organizations, Corporate, Consulates,
  Expatriates etc start using the Email and
  Internet most due to expensive Telecom
  alternative!
• First low speed digital link to Singapore Telecom
  established in 1995, subsequently upgrades to
  higher speed voice-grade lease circuit.
• Price drop from Rs. 25/Kb to Rs 10/Kb

6
The Begining1993-94

• Experimental (Free) email service is introduced
  by Ronast and Private Sector. Both organizations
  user dialup services provided by ERNET, New
  Delhi.
• Only email services (UUCP) introduced for low end
  Telecom.

7
Growth (Estimates)

• Between 1994 and 1997 email only users grows
  rapidly from 0 to 3,500
• 1998,1999 email only users growth decreases in
  favor of Internet services
• Email users now about 10,000 accounts (actual
  user about 30,000)
• Between 1996-1998 Internet users increase from 0
  to 6,000 accounts (around 12-15,000 users)
• In 1998 growth of Internet users slows down
  bandwidth constraint, high prices deter new users.

8
Growth Prices

• Most of these figures likely to more than treble
  between June 1999 and June 2000 due to VSAT
  connectivity
• Lower costs
• More bandwidth
• More POPs
• Email 15,000 email accounts (50,000 users)
• Internet 20,000 PPP accounts (100,000 users)

9
Bandwidth

• Key Issue for E-Commerce
• VSAT is the best Alternative
• 1999 major change, Internet bandwidth increased
  over 5MB, VSAT.
• 2000-01 international bandwidth expect to exceed
  15MB
• National bandwidth East West Fiber Highway

10
Ownership

• ISPs - all private ownership except NTC and IOE,
  new entrants
• Number of ISPs increase from previous 3 to 7-10
  before the end of 1999
• NTC (a 100 government company, thus far) likely
  to provide access services in 1999
• IT companies start offering commercial services
  over the web.

11
Role of government (NTA)

• Liberal policies
• Best Telco infrastructure in the region
• Incentive/subsidies to provide access to rural
  areas, poor and under privileged
• Nepal better off than neighbors including India.
• Cyber Law, IT-Policy
• Education and Computer Awareness

12
Regulation

• Internet regulations on the whole are progressive
  but are quite stringent
• Access to content made the responsibility of ISP
  and end-users
• Levies of multiple taxes could dissuade many
  potential users
• 4 2 tax on revenues

13
Manpower availability and training

• Most of the ISPs have used local computer and
  communications engineers and have been trained
  in-house
• Some ISP consultancy services purchased from
  third country
• Trained manpower is not expected to be a major
  hurdle in ISP infrastructure
• End user training is widely available from ISPs
  and computer schools.

14
Future - E-Commerce

• International connectivity - VSAT and Fiber
  Optics
• Local content in international languages and vice
  versa
• Web technology development
• Private and International Banks - swift, credit
  cards, cirrus.
• E-COMMERCE for SME and SMI
• Virtual Galleries

15
Partnerships

• Partnerships are the future
• Governments should identify the Private Sector
  Importance
• Geo Political Boundaries disappear
• It is Now OR NEVER
• Have a Great Electronic Information Future