The Hindu : National : All of Mysore is now Wi-Fi hotspot

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Oct 15, 2004

National

National

All of Mysore is now Wi-Fi hotspot

By Laiqh A. Khan

MYSORE, OCT. 14. This city with its old-world charm has outstripped other techno-savvy cities in the country, including the capital of Karnataka that is something of a Silicon Valley, to become a wholesale Wi-Fi `hotspot' for wireless Internet connectivity — the first of its kind in the country. Wi-Fi is short for wireless fidelity.

With three towers, including one atop Chamundi Hills, for the transmission of signals, the entire city, spread over 130 sq km, has become wireless Internet-enabled.

After trial runs during the last few months confirmed the presence of sufficiently-strong signals throughout the city, the Karnataka Government's Secretary for Information Technology, M.K. Shankarlinge Gowda, recently launched the service, which is provided by Wi-FiyNet, a home-grown private venture floated by a group of professionals with experience in networking and wireless technology.

"Wireless Internet is accessible in most places across the city. The few blind spots could be attributed to the terrain or the presence of concrete structures blocking the signals,'' said B.S. Sudhanva, managing director of the Mysore-based Excel-Soft, a 100-per cent export-oriented software unit catering largely to clientele in Europe. "I tried it out on my tablet PC. The Internet signals were indeed available,'' he confirmed.

Describing the Wi-Fi experience in Mysore as "unique,'' Mr. Sudhanva said even in technologically advanced European countries and the United States the Wi-Fi network is not contiguous throughout a city. With one network restricted to a certain geographical area within a city, laptop users face the problem of periodically entering a new network every time they move.

But Wi-FiyNet is not targeting laptop users. "We are basically looking at Internet users in homes and offices, who are band-width hungry,'' the chief executive officer of Wi-fiyNet, Srikant V. Rao said. But Wi-Fi enabled laptop users coming into the city can access the Internet by logging into Wi-FiyNet's server by registering their identification code.

Wi-FiyNet now has 25 to 30 subscribers. It wants to expand its customer base to 500 in the next six months for its investment of Rs. 15 lakhs in the venture to become viable. "We hope to reach a target of 1,000 customers in one year and make a reasonable profit,'' Mr. Rao said.

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