Bangalore leads Wi-Fi wave

Bangalore leads Wi-Fi wave
Monday March 31 2008 07:07 IST

A T Subrahmanya

BANGALORE: Tech-savvy Bangalore is being globally viewed as the city that would spearhead a Wi-Fi initiated movement to sweep personal computers (PCs) out of the arena.

With India’s over 240 million cellular subscribers increasingly using handsets for entertainment and social networking applications, Indian residents are likely to use Wi-Fi without ever owning a computer, states a report by Wi-Fi Alliance, a global, non-profit industry association devoted to promoting the growth of Wireless Local Area Networks (WLANs), and TonseTelecom.

Kelly Davis-Felner, Senior Marketing Manager, Wi-Fi Alliance, told this website's newspaper via email that "Especially in a growing and techsavvy city like Bangalore, Wi-Fi is an important technology to keep citizens connected and business moving forward." She said that in particular, the boom in Bangalore’s residential, retail, and hotel development would bring with it increasing Wi-Fi availability for residents and visitors.

The report "Wi-Fi in India: A Key Enabler of Economic, Social and Community Development" states that while heading towards this revolutionary transformation on India’s technological horizon, the Wi-Fi market for networking gear in India will cross $ 890 million by 2011-12, recording a 36% compound annual growth rate from 2008, according to a study.

It states that Wi-Fi technology adoption was on the rise in India, and the world’s most pervasive wireless local networking technology is enabling social and economic development across the region.

A strong indicator was the growing laptop sales, rising broadband penetration and pervasive use of mobile phones for rich content transfer as key harbingers of Wi-Fi use among a growing segment of India’s population.

With real estate development exceeding 30% annual growth, deployment of Wi-Fi networks in new residential and retail construction is cited as a key opportunity for the manufacturers and service providers.