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WIRELESS EVERYWHERE
In three years, most of India’s cities will be unwired as they are moving to launch wi-fi networks. You can connect to the internet from any place in the house or office without having to look for a cable connection to plug into a broadband connection. This is possible only through wi-fi, which is soon poised to be craving for a wi-fi city.
What is wi-fi?
- Wireless fidelity or wi-fi is a substitute for wired networking. It allows high speed wire-free access to the internet if you are close to an access point.
How does wi-fi work?
- It converts data into radio frequency signals to connect with the internet.
From where does it actuate?
- Wi-fi networks are nothing but boxes that can be put up on utility poles or in specific positions within a house or office. Each box has a range of about 150 feet indoors and 300 feet outdoors
Requirements before a set up:
- A radio frequency sweep to be conducted over the city to establish the need for the number of base stations, where the boxes suppose to be set up.
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Advantages of a wi-fi network:
Wi-fi facilitates a lot of fields such as education, health care, telemedicine, security systems and other e-governance services.
- Wi-fi helps students to work from anywhere anytime. Wi-fi access in the hostels allows submission of projects online and accesses the digital library.
- Wireless medical assistance can be given online to remote places.
- Digital cameras can be put up at places such as jewelry shops etc for security.
Disadvantages of a wi-fi network:
Though India’s few urban areas clearly figure on the world map of cities that are hot and unwired but its tough to determine how popular this will be. Because of the following reasons:
- For a city to be completely wire free around 3000 thousands boxes has to be deployed approximately costing around 32 crores, this is quite expensive for a country like India.
- Laptop in India have a barely 3% penetration versus 40% in the west.
- Wi-fi is expensive roughly Rs.120 an hour at airports & Rs.300 in hotels.
In 2004, Mysore became the first wi-fi enabled city in India.
So what is WiMAX then?
WiMAX or Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access is a broadband wireless technology. If wi-fi offers greater speed over shorter distances, WiMAX provides greater coverage. Some cities like Pune are planning to deploy a mix of wi-fi and WiMAX technologies.
-Sumanjit Saha, V SEM
