Times News Network
WiMax promises high-speed mobile data and telecom services India is finally getting rid of cable connectivity. Last month Chennai was declared the first WiMax enabled city. Then Pune followed suit. Or the other way around.
In between, Bangalore and Hyderabad also declared they were offering the same services. Some of course duck the fact that they don't offer 100 per cent availability or access yet. However, as of two weeks ago, Baramati, a small city near Pune, seemed to have pipped all the others.
Whatever the truth, the fact is both metropolitan and mofussil India are falling over themselves trying to provide wide-area broadband wireless access to its consumers.
And whereas the older Wi-Fi network is limited to about 30 metres within offices, campuses and scattered "hotspots" in airports, etc, WiMax or worldwide interoperability for microwave access is like Wi-Fi on steroids.
It's an inexpensive way to cover a large area up to a radius of 50 kilometres ideal for rural towns as well as most cities which have limited infrastructure offering high speed access to the Internet from a notebook, personal digital assistant or any similar hand-held device.
Research firms are already predicting India will have 13 million WiMax subscribers by 2012.
This is important because after globalisation and the Internet have created rapid growth in IT related interfaces, connectivity has now become vital to Indian business and society.
At the same time only a little more than half a percent of the population has residential Internet access with just 60 million users in all.
The reason is not far to see: The telecom infrastructure is inadequate and last-mile connections are typically via copper cable, DSL and fibre optic landlines where installation costs are high since they require ripping up kilometres of roadways while disrupting already chaotic traffic in order to lay cables.
In such a scenario the ability to provide connections wirelessly would not only lower the cost of services but also ensure a much-needed impetus to accelerated growth.
Embracing wireless as a dominant delivery mode will be an economically viable solution to Internet adoption that can revolutionise lifestyles in the country.
WiMax technology has the potential to provide extensive Internet access that can boost the economy, deliver better education and healthcare facilities and improve entertainment services as it has done in other places in the world.
WiMax promises high-speed mobile data and telecom services India is finally getting rid of cable connectivity. Last month Chennai was declared the first WiMax enabled city. Then Pune followed suit. Or the other way around.
In between, Bangalore and Hyderabad also declared they were offering the same services. Some of course duck the fact that they don't offer 100 per cent availability or access yet. However, as of two weeks ago, Baramati, a small city near Pune, seemed to have pipped all the others.
Whatever the truth, the fact is both metropolitan and mofussil India are falling over themselves trying to provide wide-area broadband wireless access to its consumers.
And whereas the older Wi-Fi network is limited to about 30 metres within offices, campuses and scattered "hotspots" in airports, etc, WiMax or worldwide interoperability for microwave access is like Wi-Fi on steroids.
It's an inexpensive way to cover a large area up to a radius of 50 kilometres ideal for rural towns as well as most cities which have limited infrastructure offering high speed access to the Internet from a notebook, personal digital assistant or any similar hand-held device.
Research firms are already predicting India will have 13 million WiMax subscribers by 2012.
This is important because after globalisation and the Internet have created rapid growth in IT related interfaces, connectivity has now become vital to Indian business and society.
At the same time only a little more than half a percent of the population has residential Internet access with just 60 million users in all.
The reason is not far to see: The telecom infrastructure is inadequate and last-mile connections are typically via copper cable, DSL and fibre optic landlines where installation costs are high since they require ripping up kilometres of roadways while disrupting already chaotic traffic in order to lay cables.
In such a scenario the ability to provide connections wirelessly would not only lower the cost of services but also ensure a much-needed impetus to accelerated growth.
Embracing wireless as a dominant delivery mode will be an economically viable solution to Internet adoption that can revolutionise lifestyles in the country.
WiMax technology has the potential to provide extensive Internet access that can boost the economy, deliver better education and healthcare facilities and improve entertainment services as it has done in other places in the world.
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