Telephone service in Upper Dolpa, located in the northern part of Dolpa, has been disrupted for four days. Nepal Telecom's telephone service has been disrupted due to continuous snowfall for four days.

Locals of She-Phoksundo Rural Municipality have complained that the old Nepal Telecom telephone towers in the geographically remote Upper Dolpa are not providing good service.

‘There are half a dozen Nepal Telecom towers in She-Phoksundo alone. The towers do not work well when the sun is shining and do not work at all during snowfall,’ said Vice Chairman Pemma Wangchen Gurung.

4G towers have been installed in many places in the country that are only visited by tourists, but the villages where ordinary people have been living for years do not even receive good phone calls. ‘What could be so sad? ’ he asked the government.

The municipality is home to Phoksundo Lake. Most of the tourist areas in the country are connected to 5G service, but in Upper Dolpa, he said, phone service is lost for weeks even when there is a brief cloud cover.

If the government installs 4G service with high solar backup in the Upper Dolpa area, it will be a great relief for the locals, he said. He said that the lack of proper phone facilities in the rural municipality area is not only causing problems for the locals, but it is also affecting tourists.

Similarly, Dolpobuddha and Charkatangsong rural municipalities in Upper Dolpa have also been cut off from phone communication. Local youth Pemma Chhewang Gurung said that there has been no phone service for Namaste in Dolpobuddha rural municipality for four days.

‘The roads are closed due to snowfall, locals who have gone from one village to another have not been able to reach their destinations, and tourists are also facing problems due to the lack of phone facilities,’ he said.

He said that if at least there was a phone service with 4G internet, tourists could go on their journeys after getting information about the weather on their mobile phones.