Wifi Revolution

Bangalore, the IT capital of India, will soon get another feather in its cap as it is all set to become “unwired.”

According to a report in Business Standard, Bangalore will soon provide seamless wireless connectivity as a part of its Rs 800 crore "Unwire Bangalore" project.

The project aims at creating an infrastructure network that will provide wireless Internet connection to the entire city. This will be achieved by using world interoperability for microwave access (WiMAX) and WiFi (News - Alert) technologies on a model where the consortia will build, operate and own the model.

Using SRIT's product DynaRate, users will be able to demand bandwidth on a real-time and dynamic basis. Because of this, the wireless connectivity can be based on pay per usage of bandwidth. Up to 34 kbps of bandwidth will be offered free to the subscribers by the consortium and any additional consumption of bandwidth for higher use will be charged on a pay-per-use basis. While ITI will manage the network elements for the infrastructure by supplying routers, switches, base station equipment, radio frequency towers and exchange switches, Railtel will provide the Internet bandwidth.

According to the sources in SRIT, the first phase has already been initiated covering a 5-10 km radius around Vidhana Soudha and it will be completed in six months. The remaining two phases will cover Bangalore and some suburbs.

On a whole, 679 square km of the city will be covered by this project in a phased manner.

The Karnataka government has given the go-ahead to all the five consortia that were involved in biding. Of the five consortia, pilot projects have been already launched by one and this pilot project will launch wireless Internet service in Nandi Colony and Whitefield (industrial area) in the city. The service is currently being rolled out in a commercial location.

SRIT will support the network operation centre management and provide content packaging and also manage the project. The services will be rolled out in three different phases and the consortium will spend about Rs 200 crore for this purpose. Of this, SRIT will spend about Rs 80 crore towards the software and solutions it is planning to deploy.

The other consortia that have got the nod include AirTel and Keonics, Aircel and Pronto Networks, and Microsense and VSNL (News - Alert). According to Karnataka's IT/BT secretary, MN Vidyashankar, there is scope for more players in the project. He told the government is facilitating companies in rolling out this service across the city. The government is expecting competition to increase as all telecommunication service providers are also planning to offer this service, he said.

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Raju Shanbhag is a contributing editor for TMCnet. To see more of his articles, please visit his columnist page.

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