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Our Bureau

Bangalore , Aug 24

Bangalore could overtake Pune in its attempt to go wireless.

The Karnataka Government expects to see wireless broadband connectivity in the whole of Bangalore in a year's time, affirmed Mr Anup K. Pujari, Principal Secretary to Government, IT and BT, speaking at a summit on Internationalisation of the Web in the city.

At the summit organised by the Manufacturers' Association for Information Technology (MAIT), Mr Pujari said Bangalore could become the first city to boast such connectivity in the country. He noted that Pune and Hyderabad have also taken up similar projects.

`Unwired Bangalore', the government's effort to offer citizens wire-free Internet, was announced earlier this year. The project would enable users to check mail and surf the Internet from a laptop at a park or bus stand. Scheduled for completion by 2008, the Department of IT & BT called this the ultimate step towards transforming the city as `the' IT destination.

Bangaloreans can then expect to enjoy 25 mbps wireless Internet access from their WiFi-enabled mobiles and laptops. Wireless Fidelity, or WiFi, is a wireless data transfer technology based on IEEE 802.11b protocol.

Bangalore currently has over 150 WiFi hotspots at cyber cafés, hotels, campuses, airport, and so on. India has around 400-odd hotspots, informed Mr Frank Hanzlik, Managing Director, WiFi Alliance.

Cityscape on a portal

Earlier this year, the government announced plans to offer citizens a GIS (geographic information system) portal and a digital city portal.

The GIS portal will offer a detailed map of the city. Users can access traffic updates and receive location-based information about points-of-interest and other landmarks.

The digital city portal will offer an interface for the city with other governments (G-G), businesses (G-B) as well as with citizens (G-C) and government employees.

Wi-fi hotspot provider Microsense is one of the partners in the project. "We will help develop an open standard interface so software development is easier," Mr Kailashnathan, Managing Director, Microsense, told Business Line.

More Stories on : Karnataka | Broadband | Policy

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