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Business Line ( 06 April ) carries following news :
The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India
(TRAI) has mooted a concept of open architecture-based public Wi-Fi grid to
bring down the cost of internet by 90 per cent.
By doing so, it will allow small
entrepreneurs such as tea stalls, grocery shops and vendors to set up and
maintain access points. Device manufacturers, payment companies, ISPs / telcos
and consumer internet companies can provide the remaining pieces to set up
public data offices (PDOs), it said on Thursday.
“Broadband proliferation across the
country is an important pillar of ‘Digital India’. Wi-Fi is the cheapest
option, given low-cost of equipment and free spectrum,” RS Sharma, Chairman,
TRAI, said.
The regulator’s concept involves PDOs —
much like PCOs of yester-years that galvanised connectivity. The PDOs will be
companies, or even small merchants, interested in providing Wi-Fi hotspots to
public either free or on payment model, it said.
Sharma presented a report on ‘public
Wi-Fi open pilot project’ to Telecom Minister Manoj Sinha, outlining the
success of the first phase of trials it had conducted.
According to the report, the products
available for consumption should begin from ‘sachet sized’, that is, low
denomination, as low as ₹2.
It said users should be able to easily
discover the network, do one-click authentication and payment and connect their
devices in Wi-Fi hotspots. “ The experience for small entrepreneurs to
purchase, self-register, set up a PDO must be simple, low touch and maintenance
free,” it said.
TRAI had earlier come out with
recommendations on proliferation of broadband through public Wi-Fi networks
that were sent to DoT on March 9.
The regulator has now
suggested moving ahead from the pilot to the next phase, which will involve
working with the participants of the pilot in Delhi and Bengaluru, and creation
of a testing and certification framework.
India cannot progress without ensuring that all of its
1.3 billion citizen are internet connected
And since following agencies / firms are working
towards this , it may happen sooner than later :
* Government’s
own fibre optic project to connect 2.2 lakh Gram Panchayat
* All mobile
service providers rushing in to launch 5
G network ( especially , JIO )
* Google
putting up Wi-Fi
hot spots at 400 railway stations
* Google
experimenting with launch of Loons
( internet balloons ) /
* Amazon
trying to launch Cloud services in India
* Microsoft
trying to launch its “ White
Space “ technology in India
=============================
But there is no doubt , all of these ( except the
Indian Government ) , are commercial establishments and would want to recover
their costs / investments , in some manner from those “ tea stalls, grocery shops and vendors
“
It is also possible that , in order to
gain a competitive advantage over the neighbouring shops , some of these PDOs
may offer their “ internet connectivity “ free to their customers
But what we need is :
FREE internet connectivity to every Indian ,
everywhere , all the time
Here is my suggestion to achieve that :
* Very
soon , whole of India will switch over to LED lamps ( street lamps – homes –
shops – offices – factories etc )
*
Within next few months , electric power will reach all the villages
under “ Saubhagya “
* Broadband
over Power Lines has established
that internet can be delivered over
simple electrical distribution network ( -
that means , to every place in India )
I believe, this technology is already working in USA – Canada – Europe etc
* Li-Fi
technology can deliver internet to all internet-connected devices , which are
receiving light from an LED lamp , placed above
Li-Fi provides better bandwidth, efficiency,
connectivity and security than Wi-Fi and has already achieved high speeds
larger than 1 Gbps under the laboratory conditions. By leveraging the low-cost
nature of LEDs and lighting units, there are lots of opportunities to exploit
this medium. Li-Fi is the transfer of data through light by taking fibre out of
fibre optics and sending data through LED light bulb
*
If that electric power comes from a roof-top mounted Solar Panel , even
that power is
free of cost
But the “ Holy Grail “ of “ Free Internet
“could well be following , which made news some years back :
Every smart phone turning into a “ Signal
Repeater Tower “ , enabling voice / data to jump from one ( nearby ) mobile to
another ( next ) mobile , whichever is “ inactive “ at the moment
And keep jumping till the signal reaches
its destination !
I
urge Shri Ravi Shankar Prasadji to ask Prof
Ashok Jhunjhunwala to examine
/ evaluate my suggestion , along with the proposal prepared by Shri Sharma
08
April 2018
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