Is working remote from Skardu possible?

Ahmed Hasan — Mon, 13 Jun 2022 15:09:28 +0000

Introduction

While doing my undergraduate study in Computer Science, I made a lot of friends that are now doing remote jobs or are working remotely from home. A bunch of us decided to work from a beautiful natural place where our eyes can relax away from digital screens without affecting our work.

About the Place

Skardu is located in the Gilgit-Baltistan (northern region) of Pakistan. The city is an important gateway to the important nearby mountains of the Karakoram mountain range. It is a known hub for mountaineers to stay before expediting to reach one of the highest peaks in the world.

Is work from Skardu possible?

Following are my findings on the significant three factors for smooth remote work.

Electricity
Mobile Network
Internet

Electricity
Since the main source of electricity production is from hydroelectric plants installed in rivers and canals. Visiting the place in summer will give you a constant availability of electricity. You may need more power backup if visiting out of season. Scheduled load shedding will be common close to winters. The ideal time to get good electricity would be from June till August.

Mobile network
The mobile networks of Pakistan like Ufone and Zong works well for calls and messages but will not work for internet data connectivity. There is a different mobile network named SCOM in Skardu. For internet, you can get a SCOM sim at a very decent price and can have a high-speed internet package on it as well.

Internet
You can get high-speed internet in the main city areas.
We were able to get a decent enough speed at Skardu main bazaar.
The speed in Shigar actually exceeded the speed I get in my home. Overall, I would say that the internet will not be an issue as long as electricity is not an issue. Having a good internet package can really make it possible to work without any hassle.
Speed in Skardu city

Speed in Shigar

Did we actually work?

While planning and evaluating the available options, our final decision was to take the time off to clear our heads (yes we need that a lot) instead of working remotely.
We took annual leaves for a week as we were not too sure about the limitations that we might face for smooth remote work, and postponed that remote work plan for later.
Some of us did however take our workstations to move images and stuff from DSLR (thank you Abbas for letting me borrow it) and Slack communications (yeah! not a good idea for a vacation).
Other than image editing, migration, and communications on Slack, I did not work on anything related to development. Nouman however was able to find time and work on some side tasks without any hassle.

Our vacation summary video

If you are interested in knowing a bit more about the place and us, you can check out this Youtube video

Conclusion

Based on the three main factors we observed during our 7 days visit, we think it is very possible to work remotely from the beautiful valley of Skardu.