Bangalore unwired: Still a distant dream

Bangalore unwired: Still a distant dream
Tuesday May 22 2007 10:12 IST

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BANGALORE: The ambitious project of unwiring the city which was announced last year at the Bangalore IT.IN event is still a non-starter even after three months of the scheduled roll out month (February 2007).

The city’s dream of wireless Internet connection seems to be just that, a dream, with the industry captains oming up with more excuses than results when it comes to getting the groundwork in place.

According to M N Vidyashankar, Secretary IT, BT and S&T, the test run from Vidhana Soudha to Trinity Circle was almost done and that the government was planning a demonstration of the project next month.

However, earlier this year, Vidyashankar had made the same statement announcing the trial run and demonstration of the project in second week of April, which did not take place.

Other cities in the country are racing ahead to implement wireless Internet connection, at least in some area. For instance, Pune has created a number of public Wi-Fi hot spots in the city backed by the faster WiMax Technology to offer Internet connections with speeds up to 400 kbps.

To achieve this, the city has partnered with Wireless Network provider Microsense and Chipmaker Intel.

However, the IT secretary says that the delay in implementing the project is due to the expansion of the city limits and the inclusion of Greater Bangalore due to which the project will now cover 743 sq km instead of the projected 226 sq km.

‘‘We are in the process of selecting more service providers to provide the connectivity to the expanded area and do not want to offer the service in bits and pieces by providing wireless Internet access only in parts of the city like some of the Indian and American cities.’’