copperco2 24 Report post Posted December 5, 2007 New Delhi: With only 454 public Wireless Fidelity (Wi-Fi) hotspots, India ranks at the bottom in the world Wi-Fi index. The U.S. leads the Wi-Fi hotspot index with 64,670 public hotspots followed by UK (30,613), Germany (21,236) and France (22,799). Significantly, all nine of the top 10 Wi-Fi countries also rank in the top 30 in the 2007 UN Human Development Index, reports The Economic Times. Realizing the same, the Delhi government has finalized seven bidders to set up four Wi-Fi hotspots in the national capital and also plans to extend Wi-Fi to most areas in Delhi before the Commonwealth Games 2010. In Delhi, players like Net4 India, Spectranet, Tulip IT Services, MTNL, Microsense have emerged as the front-runners to set up Wi-Fi zones in Nehru Place, South Extension and Connaught Place. While Delhi makes a start with four public Wi-Fi spots, other metropolises like New York and London have already become the Wi-Fi capitals with 3,483 and 3,195 public Wi-Fi spots, respectively, according to JiWire, a public Wi-Fi registry. According to sources, the usage of Wi-Fi for an initial few minutes will be free of charge followed by attractive schemes for longer usage for both citizens and tourists. The reason for low Wi-Fi penetration in India is the high cost of laptops (compared to per capita income), low Internet penetration and lack of e-governance services in many states. India's technology state Karnataka has about 300 public Wi-Fi hotspots compared to California with 10,700 Wi-Fi spots and Florida, which has 4,098 hotspots. In these, Bangalore itself has over 253 Wi-Fi hotspots. All Delhi Wi-Fi spots are working on 802.11g Wi-Fi technology, a standard for local wireless networks. But the Wi-Fi technology offers Internet access only when you are stationary in a network. On the other hand, the advanced 802.16e standard of WiMax offers Internet access from your laptop on the move. While Pune has about 16 public Wi-Fi zones, Mumbai has about 29 hotspots. source of the info- http://www.siliconindia.com/shownews/37888 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
