A Welcome Initiative
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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
www.hemenparekh.in / blogs
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