A study by the Global Wi-Fi Alliance has predicted that the Wi-Fi market in India will grow to $891million in four years. The adoption of Wi-Fi, which enables people to access the Internet without cables, would ride piggyback on the infrastructure and retail boom in the country, according to the study. Around 95 per cent of the laptops being sold in India at present are Wi-Fi enabled. The study also notes a steady increase in the sales of mobile handsets with Wi-Fi capability. This is another factor which would increase Wi-Fi adoption.
Other factors that will ignite Wi-Fi in India include large-scale developments of hotspots by corporates, telcos and PSUs. For instance, the Indian Railways recently announced that all important rail-routes between metros would be made Wi-Fi-enabled together with 50 railway stations (20 of which to be completed by March, 2008). Tata Communications, which has already rolled out rolled out 350 plus public hotspot locations is set to increase the chain to about 1,000 this year in 2008. Similarly, BSNL is setting up 100,000 Community Service Centres which will be carrying a powerful info kiosk that has Internet connectivity, plans to make a significant number of these Wi-Fi enabled.
While new technology solutions (PON, WiMAX, ADSL) will continue to address growing demand for broadband in India, Wi-Fi will continue to play a strong role in sub-tending the last mile to multiple end-points - slashing costs, improving inventory management in organized retail, enabling faster check-ins at airport counters, medical services in rural India, creating jobs in a rural BPOs, spreading education in hinterlands of India and enriching quality of life for many, the Wi-Fi Alliance study adds.
The study forecasts that by 2011-2012, the market for Wi-Fi networking gear and services (excluding laptops, handsets, and chipsets) in India will top $891 million, marking a 36 per cent compound annual growth rate from 2008. With real estate development exceeding 30 per cent annual growth, deployment of Wi-Fi networks in new residential, retail and corporate construction is cited as a key opportunity for Wi-Fi device manufacturers and service providers. The report profiles the work of a non-profit organization, Byrraju Foundation, which leverages Wi-Fi technology to connect rural farmers to experts in agriculture, remote patients to doctors, and young villagers to training and employment opportunities.
Tags: BSNL, Indian Railways, internet, tata communications, Wi-Fi Alliance, Wi-Fi mart
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Government may exempt license fee for BSNL’s rural operations
Friday, March 14th, 2008
The government is thinking to exempt BSNL’s rural fixed line operations from license fee after concerns over BSNL’s financial capability to offer services in rural areas after phasing out of Access Deficit Charge (ADC), a levy paid by private players to BSNL to carry out rural operations, with effect from April. . This license fee exemption will make the company gain Rs 400 crore annually.
BSNL two years ago was getting the ADC to Rs 5,000 crore annually from the private players to remunerate the PSU to take services in rural areas, where usually other players were not ready to go. Telecom regulator TRAI had decided to do away with the ADC subsidy in a phased manner as demanded by the private service providers. BSNL is fulfilling various social obligations of the government and has to operate in loss-making rural areas, as the PSU received Rs 4,650 crore from Universal Service Obligation (USO) fund during 2002 while it contributed Rs 8,031 crore towards it.
BSNL had earlier opposed TRAI’s decision to phase out the ADC saying the rural expansion would take a major hit as the private players were not going to these areas. Although the government has allowed mobile players to take advantage of USO fund to establish networks in rural areas but the move would affect BSNL as it has already invested huge money in setting up rural telephony.
Communication and IT Minister A Raja has directed the Telecom Commission to work out the details, for the decision with regard to revising the license fee and spectrum charges as percentage of Adjusted Gross Revenue (AGR). Earlier, DoT was considering to increase the spectrum charges to minimum eight per cent of AGR for the existing players but no decision has yet been taken
