Bringing the Internet to One of the Remotest Places on Earth
Children in the Khumjung school are more excited about their computer class than usual. The reason? They’re finally using the Internet—after years of learning about it only through textbooks. All thanks to a local initiative, in partnership with the Internet Society, that built the highest community network in the world.
Children in the Khumjung school are more excited about their computer class than usual. The reason? They’re finally using the Internet—after years of learning about it only through textbooks. All thanks to a local initiative, in partnership with the Internet Society, that built the highest community network in the world.
The faint hum of a helicopter grows closer before it appears. It lowers a cargo net, then settles onto the yellow “H” of a helipad, remaining on the ground just long enough to unclip its load.
As the aircraft recedes back into the sky, a group of men and women rush to unpack the net. Dawa Tshering Sherpa hoists a 60kg washing machine onto his back, which is secured by a loop of rope that passes through a padded band across his forehead. He sets off down the hill to Khumjung.
Since 1953, mountain tourism has grown steadily in the region, when Mount Everest was summitted by Sir Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay Sherpa, a local mountaineer. But even though Khunde and Khumjung are only a few kilometers away from the famous Everest Trail leading to the Everest Base Camp, most visitors keep to the main trail and overnight in the bigger town of Namche Bazaar.
Tshering Sherpa, who owns a lodge in Khunde, thinks the two villages are too hidden and not promoted well. Those tourists who do spend a few days here love it. “Most of them say it is a piece of heaven when they come up here.”
Like other people from Khunde and Khumjung, Tshering hopes a community network will bring more tourists to Khunde and Khumjung—along with improvements to education, health, and communication.
The pilot Internet network has been initiated by the Nepal Internet Foundation, with support from the Internet Society.
Connectivity Comes to the Villages
Connectivity Comes to the Villages
In 2022, Kathmandu-based Bikram Shrestha of the Nepal Internet Foundation was introduced to Chhepal Dorjee Sherpa, a trekking guide and entrepreneur who grew up in Khunde. Bikram had prior experience with community networks, and together the two set out to build “the highest community network in the world.” At the time Khunde and Khumjung had patchy mobile phone coverage, with two dozen households paying about 1,000 rupees ($7.55) per month for an unreliable ADSL connection. The new vision: provide residents with fast and reliable Wi-Fi in their homes and businesses.
In July, they began with a pilot project and connected the Community Club in Khunde and the Edmund Hillary School in Khumjung. The signal was brought to the village via a wireless link from the Hotel Everest View: the nearest tourist spot where fiber connectivity ends. There were challenges, as Bikram recalls. “It is a very extreme climate in winter, so we couldn’t make it in one go. To reach Khunde and Khumjung itself is very difficult for us.”
Naveed Haq, the Internet Society’s Infrastructure and Connectivity Director for the Asia Pacific region, was part of the team who helped set up the pilot. Two trips were canceled, he recalls, because the weather was too dangerous, and when there was a window in the weather, they could only work for a few hours each morning as rain poured down for the rest of the day. When they eventually managed to connect the school, it was a moment Naveed will never forget.
We told the students that they can start browsing the Internet. Most of them opened Google and most of them put ‘Khumjung school’ as their first search prompt. When they clicked on the button and they could see the images of their school—that excitement and that smile on their faces when they were looking at each other!”
The school has a well-equipped computer lab, but prior to the pilot project, there was only a connection that was too slow to use in any meaningful way. Ngawang Dorjee ‘ND’ Rai, the school’s principal and science teacher, says the new, faster connection has improved things—and not just for the students. “Us teachers can search the Internet for many things we are not sure about and that we have to teach the students about.” Ultimately, principal ND Rai also hopes that better Internet access will mean that the community’s young people will be able to stay in Khunde and Khumjung and work remotely from here, while teachers can seek professional development opportunities online.
Naveed Haq, the Internet Society’s Infrastructure and Connectivity Director for the Asia Pacific region, was part of the team who helped set up the pilot. Two trips were canceled, he recalls, because the weather was too dangerous, and when there was a window in the weather, they could only work for a few hours each morning as rain poured down for the rest of the day. When they eventually managed to connect the school, it was a moment Naveed will never forget.
We told the students that they can start browsing the Internet. Most of them opened Google and most of them put ‘Khumjung school’ as their first search prompt. When they clicked on the button and they could see the images of their school—that excitement and that smile on their faces when they were looking at each other!”
The school has a well-equipped computer lab, but prior to the pilot project, there was only a connection that was too slow to use in any meaningful way. Ngawang Dorjee ‘ND’ Rai, the school’s principal and science teacher, says the new, faster connection has improved things—and not just for the students. “Us teachers can search the Internet for many things we are not sure about and that we have to teach the students about.” Ultimately, principal ND Rai also hopes that better Internet access will mean that the community’s young people will be able to stay in Khunde and Khumjung and work remotely from here, while teachers can seek professional development opportunities online.
Additional funders were critical to completing the next step, which took place in May 2023. Broadpeak, 48percent.org, and several individuals, through their donations to the Internet Society, helped deploy a fiber network to reach every home in the village, improving and expanding connectivity. This was no easy feat: locals dug a 2.3-kilometer trench from the Hotel Everest View to bring fiber all the way to the villages, raising bandwidth from 10Mbps to a maximum of 100Mbps. The fiber network was completed on 29 May, an auspicious date: Everest Day, which celebrates the first summit.
Deploying a Fiber Network to Expand Reach
Additional funders were critical to completing the next step, which took place in May 2023. Broadpeak, 48percent.org, and several individuals, through their donations to the Internet Society, helped deploy a fiber network to reach every home in the village, improving and expanding connectivity. This was no easy feat: locals dug a 2.3-kilometer trench from the Hotel Everest View to bring fiber all the way to the villages, raising bandwidth from 10Mbps to a maximum of 100Mbps. The fiber network was completed on 29 May, an auspicious date: Everest Day, which celebrates the first summit.
New Opportunities: Using the Internet for Education, Healthcare, and Tourism
Economic opportunities in the villages are limited. In addition to working as tourist guides or porters, villagers live off subsistence farming or are dependent on remittances from overseas relatives. Most young people leave for education opportunities or to find work in Kathmandu. Some go as far as Australia, the United States, and Europe.
Education
Zigme Gombu Sherpa, 25, represents the challenge younger generations face. A recent information technology graduate, he was visiting his parents in Khunde for the first time since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. However, he was due to leave again, heading back to Australia to look for a job. Though he was sad to be leaving the mountains, he saw little alternative. “I wish everything remained the same, but just for a better life, for a better opportunity, everyone goes away.” With improved connectivity, Chhepal and others hope this trend will change.
New Opportunities: Using the Internet for Education, Healthcare, and Tourism
Economic opportunities in the villages are limited. In addition to working as tourist guides or porters, villagers live off subsistence farming or are dependent on remittances from overseas relatives. Most young people leave for education opportunities or to find work in Kathmandu. Some go as far as Australia, the United States, and Europe.
Education
Zigme Gombu Sherpa, 25, represents the challenge younger generations face. A recent information technology graduate, he was visiting his parents in Khunde for the first time since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. However, he was due to leave again, heading back to Australia to look for a job. Though he was sad to be leaving the mountains, he saw little alternative. “I wish everything remained the same, but just for a better life, for a better opportunity, everyone goes away.” With improved connectivity, Chhepal and others hope this trend will change.
Healthcare
In Khunde, Dr. Mingma K. Sherpa tends to the local hospital, which serves some 9,000 people. It does “a little bit of everything,” ranging from routine vaccinations to resetting broken bones to deliveries. When patients are referred to the hospital in Kathmandu, they must either walk to the airport in Lukla—a journey of one day—or get carried there on horseback. Critical patients are transported by helicopter, often at great expense to their families.
Mingma herself was born at the hospital and would come here as a child. The volunteer doctors who worked there inspired her to go into medicine. She says that after completing medical school in the Philippines she wouldn’t have come back if she hadn’t gotten a job at the hospital six years ago. Better connectivity would improve her ability to meet her patients’ needs. When “we need further consultation, it is very hard to talk with our colleagues without Internet connection.
Tourism
Better connectivity will benefit healthcare and education—and it could revitalize the tourist economy. “Locals from Khunde and Khumjung are not getting much benefit from tourism,” says Chhepal Sherpa, “even though the whole valley is dependent on it.” Plans are afoot for a homestay platform featuring the guesthouses dotted around the villages. There are many lodges along the main trail, but they are mostly Western-influenced, says Chhepal. The homestay will “offer tourists a really good experience of Sherpa culture, food, and tradition,” giving local residents a more viable income. Tourism efforts moved further in 2024 when the Internet Society partnered with Airbnb to bring further technical training to the communities, in addition to a workshop around their platform and discussions for the Sherpa homestay ideas.
More often than not, it is the foreign climbers who are celebrated when peaks are reached—while the Sherpa who guided them, readied the tracks, fixed the ropes, and carried the loads are rarely mentioned. Yet, Chhepal feels that his people are so much more than their reputation as mountaineers. “There are so many Sherpas’ hidden stories from the mountains and living in such high altitudes,” that he wants people to know, including the history of the group’s migration from Tibet over 500 years ago.
Most importantly, he wants people to know that “we are humans just like everyone else.”
Contribute to a world where everyone can benefit from the Internet’s opportunities.
