Mobile phones, internet and WiFi connectivity

Trekking is a wonderful break from the wireless world, but in the towns and cities out here it is now your choice whether you disconnect or stay connected.

Check your roaming services prior to leaving to know whether you might have service.

Nepal - Kathmandu

Most overseas mobile phones work in Kathmandu and Pokhara (or perhaps more correctly, your GSM service provider has roaming agreements with Nepal Telecom Corp, NTC: 049 01). You should be aware that occasionally an SMS (text) message sent to you will arrive 20 times. You can send messages out, normally without problem.

For our 8000m expeditions normally we have some spare SIM cards for some of the members, bring your unlocked phone along.

Internet cafés litter Thamel and other tourist haunts, so checking your Yahoo account etc. is easy and cheap.

For laptop users there are several WiFi cafés, the most convenient New Orleans, the Kathmandu Guest House and Himalayan Java. The connections are not fast, normally being unsuitable for Skype etc.

Blackberry email and GPRS and don't usually work, but that might change soon.

India - Delhi, Manali

Your phone and SMS message services should work over most of India. There are Internet cafés everywhere, and the prices are very reasonable and often the connections are surprisingly fast. A few places have Skype headsets.

WiFi or even hooking up a laptop at an Internet café is now problematic as a number of terrorists acts and hoaxes have been propagated from Internet cafés. Discuss with Kim or Joel.

Blackberrys usually work but don’t count on this, and GPRS might work.

India - Leh

Leh is really still remote and so don't rely on having any sort of reliable conductivity up here, treat it as a bonus. There are long load-shedding power cuts too.

The mobile phone coverage only covers the main part of the city, although it is being expanded. There are internet cafes but these are often full, expensive by third world standards, but still cheap compared with the west.

Tibet - Lhasa

Most overseas mobile phones work in Lhasa, indeed near villages and towns along the main roads and even at Everest Base Camp!

Other sorts of connectivity is far more problematic, and internet cafe computers are usually in Chinese, have computer viruses and are sometimes hard to find. You will occasionally be able to check Yahoo, etc, but some other websites are blocked by Chinese censors, and the connections very slow.

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