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Kripa Raman

More people and firms are turning to Wi-Fi for anytime, anywhere Net access.

WIRELESS mobile Internet access, commonly referred to as Wi-Fi or Wireless Fidelity, is fast sweeping across the world, although it is still rather new. According to the Manufacturers Association of Information Technology, "the same explosion that we've seen in cellular phones is about to catch on with mobile computing. The initial strong growth in the WLAN equipment market is being driven by the mobile data connectivity needs of professional portable PC users. A big push has been given to the whole concept of Wi-Fi through the efforts of two large and well-known organisations. One is Intel Corp, whose chief was in India very recently, talking about his company's Wi-Fi-enabled Centrino microchip and the need for India to have more hotspots (Wi-Fi enabled spaces).

Another high-profile name associated with Wi-Fi has been Starbucks, which has introduced it in several of its coffee shops across the US. A hotspot simply means that within that wireless Internet access-enabled space, one can sit anywhere and access the Net, simply with a Wi-Fi-enabled computer or laptop or personal digital assistant (PDA) or even mobile phone or Web phone.

Taking a cue from the Starbucks concept perhaps, the Tata group India, well-placed with its own networking capability and infrastructure (through its telecom companies) and with its strategic stake in Barista, the chain of coffee shops across the country, has started to do exactly the same. Tata Teleservices (Maharashtra) Ltd, announced recently, the Wi-Fi enabling of the first Barista coffee shop in Mumbai in India. One can sit at any table in the coffee shop and access the Net. "We shall soon be providing services to other corporates or to any other institution that requires WiFi" says Y.V.L. Pandit, Chief Operating Officer, Tata Teleservices (Maharashtra). In the West and in some countries of the Asia-Pacific (which is slated to have more hotspots than any other region in the world) parks, airports and business centres, convention spaces and hotels (where one can sit anywhere in the hotel and access the Net) are the common locations chosen for Wi-Fi enabling. India is not very far behind. The Oberoi chain of hotels has Wi-Fi-enabled all its six largest hotels in various parts of the country. Some of the Taj hotels have also been Wi-Fi-enabled. Then there are certain spaces, such as the campuses of high-profile software companies such as Infosys and Satyam which have Wi-Fi facilities.

According to Ponnanna Uthappa, Country Manager, Services, of Allied Digital Services, that has done the Wi-Fi networking for the Oberoi chain of hotels and is helping the Taj to supplement its Wi-Fi capabilities by adding more features, such as availability of video-on-demand at all its hotel rooms where the need for intrusive wiring is done away with: "We must now think of applications too that we can offer on Wi-Fi in places such as hotels."

He says there is now an abundance of bandwidth with many companies and they are just looking out for ways to put this bandwidth to use. In fact, several bandwidth owners (such as even the Tata group) are looking for opportunities where they can deploy Wi-Fi networks. Tata Teleservices (Maharashtra) as well as Uthappa's group (on behalf of several bandwidth owners who may even form a consortium) are now negotiating with the Airports Authority of India to Wi-Fi enable airports in the country. "These will be true hotspots where you don't need the authorisation of a hotel or a coffee shop to access the Net. Anyone can access the Net from these places."

Uthappa says his company is doing what he claims could be the world's largest Wi-Fi enabled space - Reliance Infocomm's Dhirubhai Ambani Knowledge Centre in Navi Mumbai. "There are likely to be more than 1,000 access points here, which we are installing in a quick, phased, rollout."

India has other Wi-fi-enabled spaces as well, notably the Digital Gangetic highway, a stretch of space in Uttar Pradesh around the Kanpur area which has been Wi-Fi enabled. Perhaps the most interesting Wi-fi applications in India would be those built around public services.

The Karnataka Government has, in collaboration with a US-based company, got a Wi-Fi enabled van moving in the Dodabalapur district of the state, according to MAIT. The state's bus transport service conveys the WiFi-enabled cards so that villagers can approach the mobile centre to access information such as land records.

Wi-Fi is in fact being described as the ideal solution for small spaces, or small groups of users or even places where it is too expensive or physically difficult to provide wired Ethernet networks for Internet access.

kripram@thehindu.co.in

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