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Sunday, May 06, 2007
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Browsing on a park bench? This must be Pune

Anand Parthasarathy

City surges ahead in `unwiring' race, while other IT-savvy places just talk

— Photo: Anand Parthasarathy

WI-FI HOTSPOT: A visitor accesses wireless Internet on her laptop, at Pune's Sambhaji Park.

Bangalore: ``Everybody talks about the weather, but nobody does anything about it!'' American humourist Mark Twain's quip could well be applied today, to the regular announcements that this or that Indian metro is about to become India's first `unwired' city, with wireless access to the Internet available everywhere.

The concentrations of technology industries at Gurgaon and Noida near Delhi as well as the `usual suspects' for the title of Cyber-city — Bangalore and Hyderabad — have been making periodic noises about their imminent transformation into metropolitan Wi-fi ``hotspots.''

But it's remained mostly talk — and pious intentions. Bangalore announced the selection of two private players to implement an `unwiring' project during last year's IT.in show; indeed for a few weeks, the event venue as well as the Vidhana Soudha area became Internet hotspots. But the final sanctions to convert experiment into action have not come, even six months later.

Meanwhile, a `dark horse' might just win this race. The Pune Municipal Corporation is quietly going ahead with plans to cover large swathes of the city with a wireless umbrella comprising public Wi-fi hotspots, linked by a backbone harnessing the faster WiMax technology. The PMC has partnered with a leading wireless networking player, Microsense India, and the world's largest chipmaker, Intel, in this venture.

Microsense has already created a test ``hot spot'' at the popular Sambhaji Park and is working to wirelessly connect a 20 sq. km. area which will include the Deccan Gymkhana area as well as Aundh, Baner and Model Colony, which have concentrations of technology companies. Over the next 18 months to 2 years, the partners plan to cover a wider 250 sq km area.

At Sambhaji Park last week, this correspondent could freely connect to the Internet on his laptop and surf at speeds of around 500 kilobits per second. In the evenings, dozens of locals come with their computing devices (and their kids) to sample the free Internet.

Kaushalesh Kumar, Microsense India's Business Development Manager explained that the company sees potential for 7,000-8,000 customers in the areas being initially covered. A commercial plan has not been put in place — but clearly Municipal Commissioner Nitin Kareer has a pragmatic game plan: he seems to be working towards a techno-commercial partnership, where Microsense will charge corporate customers for the ubiquitous Internet access — and also allow the Corporation to offer a compellingly priced package to lay users.

Intel's role has been to support this venture with technical expertise — the company has been evangelising seamless access to the Internet as a way to bridge the so-called `digital divide' and it brings its wide experience with similar metro-wide Wireless Internet projects worldwide to help the Pune experiment.

``The `unwiring' of Pune is a significant step in broadband access for common people. We look forward to a strong association with the PMC,'' says Intel South Asia's Managing Director R. Shivakumar.

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