A new year gift for laptop users in Bangalore?

A new year gift for laptop users in Bangalore?

The Hindu

Karnataka plans to introduce seamless connectivity by January

# Traffic jams in the State Capital have made seamless connectivity inevitable
# Second tier cities too will get the facility later

BANGALORE: Laptop users in Bangalore will get seamless computer connectivity from January 2007. The Government has decided to first introduce it in Bangalore and then extend it to Mysore and Mangalore, which are emerging as major information technology hubs.

A trial run for a fortnight from October 22 has been cleared by the Government and this would be operated by the mobile service provider, Aircel, free of cost to all those who operate a laptop within a radius of 20 km from the Vidhana Soudha. This trial run would be on till November 5 and would synchronise with the IT.in 2006, a mega event for the information technology sector.

The new Secretary for Information Technology and Biotechnology, M.N. Vidyashankar, told The Hindu here on Friday that the seamless laptop computer connectivity would go a long way in satisfying the demands of the information technology sector. Providing continuous connectivity to laptops was part of the infrastructure facilities demanded by the information technology sector. This demand had become justified all the more because of the traffic jams on Bangalore roads and the consequent increased time that the engineers had been spending in reaching their work places.

With the seamless laptop connectivity using WYMAX technology, the software engineers can begin their day's work right in their car or a bus. During the recent Karnataka bandh, software engineers remained unaffected because they either worked from their homes or reached their offices early.

Sources in the Government said another South Indian city was the first in the country to introduce mobile laptop connectivity to the web and internet but this was not very much effective since it was not seamless. The towers situated in that city were apparently not well connected resulting in a series of complaints. This was not the case with Bangalore because all the mobile telephony towers were closely linked and due to a recent TRAI order.