Viva Nepal Telecom!

Julian Sanchez | March 4, 2005

USA Today reports that the small Himalayan nation of Nepal is feeling the squeeze in the wake of a cell-phone ban. King Gyanendra shut down cell service after seizing power last month and declaring a state of emergency—purportedly in response to the threat posed by a Maoist insurgency. The cell ban is intended to make it difficult for government opponents to coordinate, but ordinary citizens and businesspeople are being hurt by the mobile blackout as well. A third of the country's telephones are mobiles.