# Affordable Broadband with Software Defined IPv6 Network for Developing Rural Communities
## 2 Broadband Policy and Network Deployment Initiatives of Nepal  
Nepal has adapted a very liberal policy in ICT sector development with the promulgation of the Telecommunication Act 2003 and the Telecom Policy 2004. The policy and act encourage involvement of private sectors in ICT. Private industries are being attracted in the ICT sector with sufficient investment for ICT service provisioning. This helps reduce the digital divide and considerably increase the ICT penetration rate. However, the increase in penetration rate is not contributing to rural communities, but more services are available in urban areas. Because of the sparse deployment of ICT infrastructure and their services to rural areas, connectivity is very poor. However, ICT infrastructure is perceived as the lynch-pin for sustainable economies of rural communities [3]. The complex territory of Nepal by its geography has three main divided regions: north--the section known as the 'Mountainous Region' (altitude between 4877 and 8848 m), mid--the section known as the 'Hilly Region' (altitude between 610 to 4876 m), and south--the section called the 'Terai Region' (regions below elevation 610 m). Nepal is a mountainous country because about 77% of total land is covered by mountains and hills. By demography, the mountain and hilly zone cover only 49.7% of the population while the Terai zone has 51.3% population in about 23% of the total land area. More developed cities are located in the Terai region, leading to increasing population migration day-by-day from mountain/hill areas. According to [4], the projected population of Nepal in 2016 was 28.4 million, in which the urban population was almost 20 million and the rural population was 8.4 million. In this context, rural Nepal is basically the hilly area and lacks in reliable infrastructure such as road networks, electricity, ICT networks, etc., leading to a high cost to expand ICT services in rural Nepal. Currently about 40 internet service providers (ISPs) are providing internet and network services, mostly focusing their services in the urban areas. Similarly, six telecom operators (Telcos) are providing voice and data services. However, existing urban centric networks and services are almost sufficient to achieve the targets set by the ICT and broadband policies of Nepal for urban communities, to achieve targets accordingly for rural communities, requires a rapid pace of ICT and broadband infrastructure expansion [5]. The history of internet penetration shows that overall penetration of Nepal will cross 100% after the year 2023, including mobile GPRS (General Packet Radio Service) users. On the other hand, the ICT Policy-2015 [6] and Broadband Policy-2015 [7] have put 2020 targets regarding network expansion and ICT enhancement throughout the country. For example, (i) Nepal will be at least in the top second quantile of the international ICT development index and e-Government rankings by 2020; (ii) at least 75% of the population will have digital literacy skills by the end of 2020; (iii) 90% of the Nepalese population will be able to access the broadband services by 2020; (iv) the GDP growth accounting by ICT will be at least 7.5% by 2020; (v) by 2020, the entire population of Nepal will have access to the internet; (vi) 80% of all citizens facing government services will be offered online services by 2020 [5]. A nation-wide broadband deployment project including district level optical fiber network connectivity through the Mid-Hill Highway; establishment/erection of mobile base transceiver stations, including operation and maintenance of shelter and power; connecting schools and connecting communities; and making ICT accessible to people with disabilities are the major initiative by Nepal Telecommunications Authority (NTA) utilizing the Rural Telecommunication Disbursement Fund (RTDF) that supports the policy actions irrespective of the time of target defined.