The general public is suffering due to the lack of reliable communication and electricity in various parts of Achham. There is a problem with the mobile network. In some places, electricity has not reached yet. Mansara Dhami of Mangalsen-13, Ki, has her husband, son and daughter-in-law in India for work. Mansara, who is alone at home, has to wait for months to find out about her relatives abroad.

There is no reliable Nepal Telecom network in the village. ‘There is no tower on the mobile, and even if there is, the phone does not work,’ she said. ‘Sometimes you have to run to a high mountain to talk to your family who have gone abroad, sometimes you have to go far away in search of a network. But most of the time, there is no contact at all.’ She said that it has been three to four months since she has been able to talk properly with her family in India. The residents of the municipality are far from communication and electricity.

Khanti Jaisi of Mangalsen-7, Ki, has the same pain. ‘The tower is not shown on the phone, sometimes the phone rings  . It seems to be there, but you can’t hear what is being said,’ she said, ‘When I get sick, when I have a hard time, there is no way to inform anyone .’

Nepal Telecom has started the process of replacing the old 2G technology with 4G throughout the country . Kamal Bahadur BK, head of the Telecommunications Office, said that while this work was being done on 45 towers in Achham, there was a problem with the network. Consumers are having more trouble during the technology upgrade . According to him, problems have been seen especially in audio (voice) during the 2G phase-out .

‘We are moving all 45 towers to 4G . We are facing technical difficulties at this stage,’ he said, ‘The work on the main towers like Sanfebagar, Vinayak, Kalika and Bayalpata has been completed . The equipment for the Mangalsen-6 large-scale tower has arrived. Work will start in a few days. He said that the problem seen in the telephone may continue until the end of the current fiscal year.

Another reason for the ineffectiveness of telecom services in the district is the lack of reliable power supply. Most of the towers in the district are still not connected to the national transmission line.

According to the head of the telecom office, BK, since the central transmission line has not yet reached some areas of the district, the towers there are forced to operate completely on solar energy. 'There is a challenge in areas where electricity is not available to carry out 4G upgrading work on solar energy. 4G equipment draws more power, but solar cannot always handle the load,' he said, 'When there is no sun or clouds, the power goes down and the tower is shut down.' Due to this problem, we are also receiving many complaints from consumers.'

As soon as the power short-out occurs in the tower, the communication service in the entire area is completely disrupted. According to the Electricity Authority Distribution Center, out of the 10 local levels in the district, only Sanfebagar Municipality and Bannigadhi Jayagarh Rural Municipality have been fully electrified so far. The rest of the municipalities are out of reach of electricity. Banda and Dandigade areas of Mangalsen-13 are in darkness. Settlements including Kwallekh, Jama, Faltane, Tanti and Sundevi of Kamalbazar-7 are still without electricity. Electricity has reached only wards 1 and 6 out of 8 in Dhakari Rural Municipality. Kalekanda of Panchdewal Binayak Municipality-9 is not yet within the reach of the national transmission line. Preparations are underway to extend the line here from Dailekh.