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One of the challenges facing India for last mile connectivity to homes and offices is the stranglehold that the government owned telcos ([1] BSNL and MTNL) have. While both are now pushing DSL to the home, the pace of deployment is not as rapid as India needs. In this context, what is interesting are the plans by many cities in the US to deploy wireless networks to provide a blanket of connectivity. This has two implications for India: first, we should be looking at similar technologies and plans; and second, the US deployment (along with usage in other international cities) will drive the cost of equipment lower making it much more affordable. Given India’s lack of legacy network infrastructure, city Wi-Fi networks make a lot of sense.
Recently, even as San Francisco announced that Google and Earthlink had won the bid to provide Wi-Fi across the city, Intel announced that it is working with Pune Municipal Corporation towards building the first Wi-Fi Indian city. The Economic Times wrote about the initiative:

The Pune municipality and Intel have reportedly teamed up to envelop 400 sq km of the town in Wi-Fi connectivity. That it will make Pune the first city to be so enabled is just one aspect of this development.
What is more important is the implication this development holds for telecom policy and regulation and for competition between different cities fighting to be the most attractive IT destination. This proposed Wi-Fi network, in one stroke, forces home the message that it is foolish to bet solely on traditional telecom networks.
Not only does a Wi-Fi enabled city offer subscribers wireless access to the internet all over, it also opens the doors to a widespread voice network based on voice-over-internet protocol (VoiP). Handsets that tune into Wi-Fi networks for VoiP calls have already been launched abroad. For traditional access networks, whether fixed or mobile, this surely is bad news.
That the Pune project will start off with an initial investment of just Rs 7 crore clearly implies that newer technologies such as Wi-Fi and Wi-max can perhaps be a cheaper option for rural telecom expansion.

India needs to leapfrog into a world of ubiquitous broadband connectivity and we need all the options we can get. Whether the last mile is DSL, cable, Metro Ethernet, fibre, or Wi-Fi, the next 12-18 months need to see Indian cities enveloped in connectivity. This digital infrastructure is as important as the physical infrastructure that is being developed. It is in this context that we need to look closely at Wi-Fi and its mesh variants.
TECH TALK: CITY WI-FI NETWORKS: THE US SCENE
The Economist discussed municipal Wi-Fi networks in a recent article (March 9):

Small municipal wireless networks, typically built for local-government use, have been up and running in some parts of America for some time. The far bolder idea of building citywide networks available to all took flight in August 2004, when plans for such a network were announced by John Street, the mayor of Philadelphia. Stringing transmitters across the entire city would create the world’s largest Wi-Fi hotspot, providing access both indoors and out.
This would extend low-cost broadband access to existing users frustrated by the slow speed and high cost of dial-up internet connections.
…
Mesh networking allows large areas to be blanketed with wireless coverage quickly and inexpensively. As its name suggests, a mesh network consists of an array of wireless access points, only a few of which are actually connected back to the internet via high-speed links (known as ?backhaul? connections). The trick is that all of the access points double as relays, passing packets of data to and from their neighbours. This connects up the mesh, so that users can access the internet at high speed at any of the access points. If the nearest access point does not have a backhaul connection, the packets of data that users send and receive simply make one or more hops across the mesh.
As well as being cheap and fast to set up partly because many of the access points can be attached to utility poles mesh networks have several other merits. They can provide coverage in areas, such as sprawling suburbs, where fast copper or fibre-optic connections are hard to come by.

The advantage of using Wi-Fi is that it operates in the unlicenced frequency bands. (In India, there may still be some licences required for the use.)
The Wall Street Journal (March 20) wrote: ?Most of the municipal networks use the same wireless technology, Wi-Fi, that provides Internet “hotspots” at coffee shops and airports. Small radio transponders are deployed on public buildings, street lamps, and streetlights, creating a network that consumers can connect to with their laptops almost anywhere in a city. That network itself is connected to the Internet. The cities often charge users around $15 a month for the service, though cities such as St. Cloud, Fla., are opting for free access. That compares with cable broadband bills that typically run around $40. DSL services from the large phone companies can run as low as $15 a month for slower speeds, but speeds closer to cable are roughly $30…EarthLink inked a deal with Philadelphia on March 1 to offer service there by putting radio transponders on 4,000 of the city’s street lamps. The service will be about $10 a month for low-income people, $20 a month for the general public. The company is bidding in a partnership with Google in San Francisco to offer a service that would be free at slow speeds, and would go for a moderate fee at higher speeds.
TECH TALK: CITY WI-FI NETWORKS: TAIPEI’S LEAD
Even as US cities consider and start rolling out Wi-Fi networks, one Asian city that has already started doing it is Taipei. The Wall Street Journal (January 19) wrote: “The network, initiated by the Taipei city government and built by a private company, already includes more than 3,300 wireless “access points” that cover half the city’s 106 square miles. The devices use the wireless Internet technology known as Wi-Fi to let Taipei’s 2.6 million residents surf the Internet or send emails from the privacy of their living rooms or the public comfort of their favorite park benches. Although the project has encountered some glitches and delays, city officials say that when it is completed around midyear, it will cover more than 90% of Taipei.”
The Taipei network is not cheap. The WSJ article adds: In August 2004, the government approved Q-ware Systems Inc., which beat out another local company in bidding. Construction started the following month. Q-ware, in turn, hired Nortel Networks Corp. of Brampton, Ontario to build, equip, and maintain the system…Q-ware says it is investing about $93 million to build the network.
An article in Forbes in 2005 provided some additional information:

The city of Taipei, Taiwan, is currently deploying a mesh network that will eventually blanket the city, installing wireless mesh antennas on street lamps, in train stations and on the side of buildings. “This is the first time a city of 272 square kilometers could be wholly covered by a wireless LAN,” says Mayor Ying-jeou Ma.
…More than 10,000 wireless access points will be in service, providing coverage to 90% percent of Taipei’s 2.65 million citizens.
The mesh technology provides an easy way to deliver broadband Internet access to every citizen of Taipei. “Wireless LANs solve the problem of the last mile, particularly in a metropolitan area,” says Ma. When completed, the wireless network will be used for everything from public safety applications to providing a pervasive network for Internet telephony and Wi-Fi cell phones. “The business models remain to be invented, but this is a trend that is inevitable,” says Ma.

Additional details of Taipei’s network are available here. The network, dubbed WIFLY, costs NT399 (Rs 550, $12) per month.
In many Asian cities, Wi-Fi co-exists with multiple other solutions. But in countries like India, it can become the primary form of access. With the government in India reluctant to open up the last mile access of the telcos to competition, wireless mesh networks using unlicenced spectrum are what the country needs.
TECH TALK: CITY WI-FI NETWORKS: MESH TECHNOLOGY
A technology overview of wireless mesh networks is provided by Wikipedia:

Wireless mesh networking is mesh networking implemented over a Wireless LAN.
This type of Internet infrastructure is decentralized, relatively inexpensive, and very reliable and resilient, as each node need only transmit as far as the next node. Nodes act as repeaters to transmit data from nearby nodes to peers that are too far away to reach, resulting in a network that can span large distances, especially over rough or difficult terrain. Mesh networks are also extremely reliable, as each node is connected to several other nodes. If one node drops out of the network, due to hardware failure or any other reason, its neighbours simply find another route. Extra capacity can be installed by simply adding more nodes. Mesh networks may involve either fixed or mobile devices. The solutions are as diverse as communications in difficult environments such as emergency situations, tunnels and oil rigs to battlefield surveillance and high speed mobile video applications on board public transport or real time racing car telemetry. The best mobile networks are those such as Motorola’s which provide a seamless handover between the mobile device and the fixed infrastructure points.
The principle is similar to the way packets travel around the wired Internet data will hop from one device to another until it reaches a given destination. Dynamic routing capabilities included in each device allow this to happen. To implement such dynamic routing capabilities, each device needs to communicate its routing information to every device it connects with, “almost in real time”. Each device then determines what to do with the data it receives either pass it on to the next device or keep it.

An article in Business Communications Review (January 2006) discussed the pros and cons of wireless mesh networks (WMNs). David Axner wrote: “A WMN is easier to install and is less expensive than wired networks, since it uses radio signals instead of cable to connect nodes. Resiliency is a key atrribute of WMNs…Mesh networks also have their down side. WMNs can suffer from bandwidth degradation, radio interference, and per-hop latency as networks grow. The BCR articles also discusses various technologies from companies like BelAir, Firetide, PacketHop, MeshDynamics, Motorola, Nortel, SkyPilot, Strix and Tropos. [Google and Earthlink are planning to deploy Tropos’ technology for San Francisco.]

TECH TALK: CITY WI-FI NETWORKS: THE INDIA OPPORTUNITY
In emerging markets like India, there are five elements that need to come together to provide an end-to-end solution for computing and connectivity.
First, build a city-wide wireless mesh network. This will provide the connectivity fabric and provide an alternative to getting DSL or cable (or waiting for WiMax). The key price point for this connectivity needs to be around Rs 200-250 ($4.50-$5.50) per month.
Second, use a variety of access devices to connect to the network. These could be PCs or network computers. (One of the companies I have helped co-found, Novatium, has just such a solution the Nova NetPC.) We will also see mobile devices like the Nokia 770 and phones with Wi-Fi built in connecting to the mesh network.
Third, provide a backend computing and storage grid. This helps centralise computing and provides for seamless mobility for users. It also makes computing much more affordable and manageable.
Fourth, provide applications and content from a centralised grid to users over the wireless mesh networks.
Finally, use advertising to reduce the price that users have to pay for the service.
The key is to be able to offer the base service for no more than $10 (Rs 450) a month for the entire solution (device, connectivity and services), with additional revenue possible through value-added services.
This is what will make computing and the Internet take off in India. At Rs 450 a month, computing will become much more affordable. The wireless mesh networks help in rapid deployment. Customers can buy the access device (PC or network computer) independently and ‘plug’ it into the wireless envelope.
India needs to rapidly proliferate broadband and computers across homes, schools and small- and medium-sized enterprises. The use of network computers along with city wireless networks is a giant step in bringing tomorrow’s world to life. From a laggard in broadband and computing, India can be a leader in this space and a beacon for other emerging markets.

About Author:

Rajesh Jain considers IndiaWorld, to be one among his successful venture which was launched by him in 1995 and was acquired by Sify in November 1999 for USD 115 million. Today IndiaWorld is the largest collection of India-centric websites, comprising Samachar, Khel, Khoj .

Rajesh is a member of Sify’s Advisory Board, and Managing Director of Netcore Solutions, an Enterprise Messaging Solutions Company.

Rajesh has done his M.S. in Electrical Engineering from Columbia University, New York in 1989. Having worked at NYNEX Science and Technology for 2 years he returned to India in 1992 He currently writes his personal blog at Emergic and looks forward to offer cost-effective technology solutions for small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in emerging markets like India.

Views expressed here belong to the author and do not represent those of Thinkingstreet or the author’s employer.