A saga of communication leap

(Eak Raj Bastola)

Bhupal Rai, an acclaimed poet of Nepal, has not been writing letters for many years.  Instead of letters, nowadays, he uses email, internet and online chat previsions to communicate with his colleagues. He has written many love letters, personal and other purposeful letters in his time. But, now he has forgotten everything. However, the worth of letters has not been replaced by electronic messaging services like email, chat, SMS, MMS, he shares. The newly developed technology does not supersede the primacy of feelings, values of existence and powers of letters, he says. Similarly, Arun Kumar Pakhrin (24), living in Kathmandu has never written letters. With the advancement of technology, easily accessible, fast and reliable services like email and online chats are better, he shares.

As a direct consequence of technological changes in communication, traditional ways of communications are running into disuse each day. In the general Post Office, most letters registered these days are formal and official ones. Baburam Pandey, Chief Post Master of the General Post Office informs that the volume of letters sent and received these days is decreasing day by day. A total 58,965, 698 inland mails were handled in 2010, which is 16 percent less in comparison with the volume of the preceding year. In 2009, a total of 70, 443,920 mail items were handled according to the Postal Service Department, annual reports 2010.

The decline is caused by the wide availability of modern telecommunication means like cell-phone, value added service like SMS, MMS, fax, E-net, phone, internet etc. throughout the country, Pandey opines. Times have changed!

With the development of mobile technology, SMS is becoming very popular among mobile users, especially youth. Sms is one of the easiest and congestion free methods of communication too. In Nepal, each day, about 1.2 million SMS (Short Message Service having 160 characters in a page) are exchanged and about 3 thousands MMS in a day. It is said that more than 60 percent of the mobile users use SMS for fast and reliable message delivery, against the potential network barriers and other technical problems. According to the NTC, during New Year and Dashain last year, more than 8 million and 10 millions SMS were transmitted respectively. According to Nepal Telecom Authority (NTA), 14 February reports, the number of mobile users has reached 13,845,450, which is the 52 percent penetration rate. It means half of the total populations carries mobile.

Telecommunication in Nepal was basic, limited and have very less services. But now, there are numbers of services as SMS, MMS, GPRS, 3G, RBT (Ring Back Tone) and so on. After the 1995, Telecom services started getting expanding in Nepal.  The Nepal Telecom Company (NTC), the state-owned operator, has been the major builder and operator of the national telecom network. NTC is the first telecom operator in Nepal.  After the opening market for private sector service providers, United Telecom Ltd started services in 2003. Then in 2004 Ncell started its services. Now country has six telecom operators in Nepal. Most of them have the value added service.  People are using these services. Now, we can see the widely presence of SMS usage in these days.

According to socialbakers.com, the total number of Facebook users in Nepal has reached up to 1426240. It is 4.93 per cent of Nepal’s total population. Likewise, the largest age group is currently 18-24, and 69 per cent users are male.  Before April 2005, a very limited number of Nepalis used Twitter, Facebook and such other social media.  With the users in Facebook, the chat is widely used to communicate. Nepali has more than 20 millions email accounts which is use in medium of communication in replace of letters.  

With the development of technology, ISPs are providing services with new technology. Initially Internet and email was used from Dial-up technology. Now Nepal has entered the age of Wi-Fi, Wi-Max Wireless DSL, with high speed and less network tariff. Due to quality services and high data speed, older technology is becoming absolute and new technology has hit the market, Binay Bohara, president of Internet Service Provider of Nepal (ISPAN) opines. ISPs have already invested more than 3 billion rupees. Currently,  Internet penetration rate of Nepal is 15.75 and have 4,193,243 subscribers at present.  Out of this, 3,868,575 are the subscribers of GPRS, NTA reports shows. Most of the latest mobile sets including non-branded Chinese hand gadgets have the capabilities of running Internet and have features having bookmarks of social networking sites like Facebook and Twitters besides other programs like Bluetooth, Multimedia. Finally the availability of hi-end mobiles as Smartphone, Blackberry and I-Phone has raised this numbers. Likewise, technology has changed in household goods. 

The development of ICT in Nepal has shown its impact on music sector as well. With the development in technology, lyrics of songs have changed. A decade before, most of the people depended on letters to know news and information of their relatives, who had gone far from them. At that time songs were like the following:

1.      Chitti ayena chitti ayena

mero mayalu ko malai chithi ayena……

2.      Or E hawa Puraide mero chithi…..and so on

Take some example of modern songs:

1.      Facebook le yesto bhanayo….

2.      Chinjhan nabhayepani mobile ma kura hun6a…..

Now, with the massive use of Facebook, Internet, and mobile phones songs are written in accordance with the contemporary situations. But, Dutendra Chamling, lyricist and a researcher of music, is unsatisfied with these types of song.  He says, “Lyricists and musicians are saying that they are changing to contemporary situations as the audience demands, but the audience does not need this type of songs. This type of music has ruined Nepali music as such songs do not long last. Still, people listen to Narayan Gopal, and Bacchu Kailas as their songs are timeless and of sublime quality.”