The Hindu Business Line : Unwired Bangalore: No decision yet on tech

Calling details of the city being WiMAXed "a nice figment of imagination," Professor S. Sadagopan, Director, International Institute of Information Technology, Bangalore on Tuesday cleared the mist on the Unwired Bangalore project.

Prof Sadagopan, heads the committee that oversees the project. He was speaking at the panel discussion on G: Mesh or Max during the COMmunication System softWAre and MiddlewaRE (COMSWARE) 2007 conference in the city.

Government officials mean well, but have no idea what is being decided, he said. "Government folks go ahead and make nice statements," said Mr Sadagopan.

It is still not clear what technology will be used for the project. Most of the 21 companies that registered (and have formed into seven consortiums) are looking at a combination of WiFi and WiMAX. However, the project was conceptualised as being technology agnostic and vendor neutral. The project has received approval from 20 departments and 34 secretaries.

The WiMAX pilot will last three months and will reach 5,000 users. A technology evaluation will be conducted in the period and benchmarking will be undertaken. The perceived use of it by the user will also be noted.

The announcement of final vendors will be made on January 31. The pilot project will begin by March. It will cover over 600 sq km. The Government will not invest in the project. It is entirely a private sector initiative with a focus on giving citizens wireless broadband.

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