Incident: Restricted communications, Nepal

Last night the government of Nepal cut all access to landline and cellular telephones as well as the Internet. Landlines are functioning today, but it’s not clear for how long. This is likely an attempt to disrupt demonstrations planned for this coming Friday. This isn’t the first time this has happened. Last February the government shut down all Internet access for a period of time.

A few questions to ponder. How much of your office operations depends on the Internet, and what would happen if it went down for an extended period? Do you have a contingency plan in place to deal with such a situation? Does your office have access to satellite phones for emergency communications in case telecom services become unavailable due to a natural disaster or government intervention? Is staff trained in sat phone use?