This is absurd ! Both Internet outage and government action against ISPs are absolutely unnecessary.

Let me first talk about call by-pass:

I have told before – call by-pass is not a problem at all. The government blocked some VOIP websites. But, it couldn’t do anything to Google when it introduced free call to US and Canada.

Now, why is the police against some ISPs accusing them of using their services to call by-pass?

If it is cheaper to call Nepal due to illegal call bypass, why is it bad?
Because it hurts the profit of large voice operators in Nepal and robs the government of resulting tax revenue.

If the large voice operators can’t keep up with the new technology – why should the government protect them?

The telecom operators should embrace internet and VOIP as new technology and find new revenue avenues in them instead of trying to stop them from coming in.

Next, why are ISPs punishing their own customers for government action?

Nepali people have felt a bit of relief from varieties of Nepal Bands (roads and businesses closures) that used to happen every now and then in all over Nepal. These days, such bands are not called that often. But, it seems people find different other ways of disrupting things.

Today, it was the closure of internet highway. The Internet Service Providers’ Association of Nepal (ISPAN), an umbrella organization of Internet Service Providers (ISP) in Nepal, has asked its members to disrupt internet services for an hour from 1:00 pm – 2:00 pm on April 10, 2011. In it’s press release ISPAN has told that the protest is against the government’s policy to held ISPs liable for the misuse of the Internet service by their customers.

They accuse that, "in last few months the directors and staff of ISPs are being held in custody and taken to court when a customer of a respective ISP has been identified to be operating illegal call bypass."

ISPAN demands of safe environment free from fear of unwarranted police action seems a valid demand. But, why are the unsuspecting customers punished for the government action?

It is the third time the Nepali customers have faced internet outage. Former King Gyanendra shut down internet when he took over the power in 2061 BS. Then in 2063, ISPs blocked internet for an hour in similar protest.

It is known that ISPAN has called off their protest after NTA has formed a committee to investigate on VOIP case.

Reference Links

• ISPAN Protest Program Details
• Call By-pass investigation details in Nagariknews (Sorry, the site has removed the news article.)
• Protest letters submitted by ISPAN to Telecommunication Authority (below):