CONNECTIVITY in the time of crisis
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THE KATHMANDU POST ASIA NEWS NETWORK
Nepal continues to reel from Saturday’s earthquake. Aftershocks continue, although they seem to be decreasing in intensity. Nepalese spent Sunday on tenterhooks, mostly outside, huddled under makeshift tents, garages and pavements. At night, whatever little light there is comes mostly from cell phones, as the survivors call on relatives and friends, check for the updates from news services, and field concerned calls from abroad. Though cellphone service is still sporadic, there are moments of respite when a call goes through or when the 3G data network picks up. Still, the larger story is that the cellphones have facilitated contact in times of strife and uncertainty and have provided much-needed assurance.
Amidst the devastation of the quake, the flow of information has stayed stable. Nepal Telecom (NTC) and Ncell, Nepal’s two mobile service providers, have managed to keep their networks relatively robust and prevented a major communication blackout.
In the immediate aftermath of the 7.9-magnitude quake, networks were congested and it was difficult getting a call through.
In some areas, 3G data networks stayed up, allowing crucial first-hand information to be uploaded to the internet via social networks like Twitter and Facebook. Though cellphone service was by no means constant and reliable, even sporadic service allowed people to check in on their loved ones and gain some peace of mind.
On Sunday, as the networks began to ease up, Ncell and NTC instituted free locals calls while the Indian government offered free calls to and from India for 48 hours starting the same day.
Even Viber, the messaging and Voice over IP (VoIP) app, offered free outgoing international calls from Nepal. Facebook’s Safety Check and Google’s Person Finder have also both been helpful in locating missing people and alerting those concerned to the whereabouts and status of loved ones. There have even been reports of people trapped underneath debris sending texts asking for help.
There has also been a flipside to this story. Unsavoury rumours and hearsay too have spread like wildfire in the world greatly connected by social media, causing many to live in constant terror of another impending massive jolt right through the current ordeal.
One crucial actor that has been missing from this picture, however, has been the government.
The state has made no attempts to utilise mobile phones, which 77 per cent of the population now carry, to disseminate crucial information regarding relief programmes, safe open spaces, and food and water distribution. This is the sign of the old-school officialdom that still hasn’t woken up to the potential of digital communication.
In Haiti’s 2010 earthquake, researchers from the Karolinska Institute and Columbia University were able to track movements according to raw cell phone data. Nepal could ask for similar help. Currently, #ThankyouPM is trending on Twitter in relation to the quake. The irony here is that the PM in question is not Sushil Koirala, but India’s Narendra Modi, whose is much savvier at social media than our ageing digital dinosaurs.
