The Hindu : Business : WiFi for twelve hotspots in State

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Dec 16, 2005

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Business

WiFi for twelve hotspots in State

Staff Reporter

Four to six places are expected to be in Ernakulam

KOCHI: Wireless connectivity to the Internet will become a reality soon. Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited is in the process of deploying WiFi equipment across the State in at least 12 points.

Of the 12 hotspots, four to six places are expected to be in Ernakulam. It is learnt that the BSNL would be ready to roll out the facility in less than six months. Such a facility would be one of the key factors in making Kochi, Thiruvananthapuram and Kozhikode, where the hotspots are coming up, meet the intelligent infrastructure as a stepping stone for major developments.

These points, called the `hotspots,' will make available Internet connection through a WiFi card in the PC or a Laptop without any physical connectivity of a modem or telephone. Airports are one of the important areas, which would be made wire free. Other hotspot places are yet to be finalised. Surveys are going on to find the best suitable hotspot.

WiFi or Wireless Fidelity is likely to be made available in important places with respect to commercial activity. The port, five-star hotels and major conference halls are some of the other places where hotspots are likely to be set up. Transmission radius of the equipment will be about 100-150 metres at the spot.

About 300 hotspots are being identified across the country to make wireless connectivity to the Internet.

The Chennai airport has already been commissioned as a hotspot. There will be 35 other hotspots in Chennai alone. Coimbatore, Trichy, Madurai and Pondicherry will have four hotspots each.

WiFi connectivity is a project of the Southern Telecom Projects, headquartered in Chennai. Another of its project is laying of optical fibre systems. Work is going on in 11 cities in the State out of the total 70 southern cities. The project will facilitate high-end subscribers, corporates and companies to obtain telephone, speech and data services in required bandwidth. In other terms, a subscriber will get Bandwidth on Demand.

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