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The Government's move to de-license 2.4 GHz and 5.1 GHz bands, on which the Wi-Fi platform works, is seen as a step that will trigger this technology's growth.

Under the new notification, the 2.4 GHz band can be used to provide both indoor and outdoor Wi-Fi, while the 5.1 GHz band can be used for indoor and adjacent campuses. Any service provider can establish, maintain, possess and deal with wireless networks operating on these bandwidths without licence.

Anand Mehta, Manager-New Business Areas Development, D-Link India Ltd, says one can look forward to growth in the education and hospitality sector. D-Link has tied up with Sify to create hotspots at the Chennai and Delhi airports.

It hasalso designed Wi-Fi zones for IIT Kanpur, PSG institute of management, The Oberoi Rajvilas Resort Hotel, Green Park Hotel, Vishakhapatnam, and Hotel Le Meredien Jaipur.

On the setting up of a WiFi hotpsot at BITS, Pilani, J.P.Mishra, Head, Computer Science Department and Computer Centre, says, "Our library is always in demand. Students find it difficult to access it when it is crowded.

So we first set up our hotspot here so that every student with a laptop can access books he wants at any time and any place."

It been two years since the library was connected, now the entire campus has been WiFi-ed at a cost of over Rs 7 crore.

Amongst schools, Pathways World School was the first to set up its hotspot in 2003. Prashant Jain, Director of the school, feels the computer must be used as a tool for education.

"There are cross curriculum projects that students have to do, Wi-Fi connectivity provides access to the school server and library from anywhere in the campus," he says.

The 32-acre campus near Delhi has been WiFi-ed at a cost of Rs 1.2 crore.

The cost of accessing networks through Wi-Fi in educational institutes is borne by students. Most institutes incorporate a fixed amount in the annual fees.

Institutes are taking time to adapt to this technology, due to the initial cost involved and the fact that children from the middle-class generally don't own laptops.How is the scene with hotels? Shahul Phirouse Ahamed, Network Engineer (Convergent Comm), manages the Wi-Fi hotspot at Park Sheraton, Chennai. "Out of 150 rooms, only 30-40 per cent use the Wi-fi facility," he says. Though he has not conducted any formal tests in the last two years, he feels demand is growing.

Most customers who use the hotspots at hotels stay for a day or two. There are packages to suit everybody's needs. Le Meredien, Chennai, has Wi-Fi plans starting at Rs 125 (30 minutes) up to Rs 600 (for a day).

The hotel's hotspot covers its rooms, lobby, banquets and public areas within the hotel.

For any user, two aspects are key to using a technology - speed and security.

In this context, what is the status of Wi-Fi today?

Manoharan, Manager, IT, Le Royal Meredien, says, "Earlier, we depended on a 56 KB dial-up modem.

This would result in loss of data and the speed was very poor. We were also dependent on the telecom department for these connections. But now we have a leased line facility that supports speeds of 54 Mbps."

This is the standard that has been adopted in most other places as well.

Parag Arora, Business Development Manager, Cisco Systems India and SAARC, says, "The de-licensing has facilitated easier rollouts of applications such as Wi-Fi, video streaming and broadband connections by Internet Service Providers (ISPs).

The 2.4GHz Frequency band can enable wireless data connectivity with speeds ranging from 256 Kbps to 1 Mbps links."

On the security front too, things seem to have improved. Pathways school has implemented multi level security from Cisco systems for all laptops on campus. Hotels like Park Sheraton also use only secured WiFi.

So will the move by the Government see Wi-Fi gaining ground?

While most networking players such as Cisco, D-Link and Intel are optimistic, those with existing connections are unhappy that the de-licensing has come long after they set up shop.

Mishra, BITS Pilani, says "This move is of no use to us. Had they brought this two years ago, I could have cut down on my costs for installing the hotspot.

In the next three years, the market will have a 10 GB network for WiFi that we will buy, but will the Government extend the de-licensing policy there as well?"

If the Government keeps the momentum going, we may have better and faster Net access and a wider variety of service providers to choose from.

And possibly look forward to more hotspots coming up in one's neighbourhood.

The basics

Wireless networking refers to a technology by which two or more computers can communicate without any wiring.

Wi-Fi stands for wireless fidelity and is used to refer to a network hardware standard like 802.11, 802.11b, 802.11a, dual-band, etc. These hardware deal with radio frequencies and data transmission.

A snapshot of the wireless industry, market and trends.WiFi saves time for deployment, prevents digging up of land to lay expensive cable, provides mobility, and makes operations more flexible.

One needs a 1 MB LAN cable, antenna, ISP provider, internal switches, router and access point.

The whole set-up could cost between Rs 2.5 lakh and a few crores (depending on the area to be WiFi-ed).

The Indian Wi Fi market is around Rs 35 crore and expected to double every year for the next two to three years.

In the next 12 months, the number of hotspots will see growth from the current 300 to 800-1,000.

Potential sectors for growth are manufacturing, telemedicine, business applications such as real-time inventory control, fleet management, warehouse management, and Voice over WLAN (VoWLAN).

Products on offer by networking majors are as follows:

Cisco, D-Link and 3Com - access points, wireless bridges, work group bridges, antennas, client adapters, and other accessories.

Intel-Centrino (which includes the Intel Pentium M processor and the Intel PRO/Wireless 2100 network connection).

eworld@thehindu.co.in

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