Unwiring Pune!

I read about the grandiose plans of "unwiring"Pune again after a long, long time. Last time they talked about it was about an year ago. And I read in the yesterday's Pune mirror, that all this long they were trying to put up a pilot project, which as per the paper doesn't work. There was a nice picture by the article which showed the well despised "Can not find server" IE error.

So where am I heading? Well, I had a sense that this was never going to work given that we haven't been able to get past even a relatively rudimentary, not too tech-oriented problem of making "drivable" roads. Since I have been working in a wi-fi mesh networking company for last one year, I think I know some of the hurdles and challenges in an ambitious plan like this. A really meaningful city wide wi-fi deployment takes some good planning and also needs sumptuous resources, which are two major problems in the India context. Add to these the huge population pressure, the poor per capita PC penetration and the pathetic law and order condition( think-shiv sena can pelt stones at a wireless router to oppose young people using orkut to set up dates!) and we know that we are in for a herculean task.

Lets focus on the technology part, setting aside the political and law and order problems. Wi-fi (technically 802.11) by design is supposed to be a shorter range solution than something like wi-max, but at a cheaper price than the latter. To guarantee a coverage of about 90% in a city like Pune would translate to a at least 30 large capacity "nodes" per 4 sq km. Depending on the backhaul connectivity you choose, you would have to give back haul(wired connectivity to the internet) to all or some of these access points which means non trivial investments in laying down fiber lines etc. Just a quick comparison with a smaller city like Mountain View, CA would be sufficient to have a feel for the costs. The figure will be close to a $1 mn there. Note that google has provided "Free" internet here to all citizens and this network performs well with good coverage and satisfactory speeds. Here is a link: http://gigaom.com/2006/08/15/google-launches-wifi-network-in-mountain-view/

And look at the meager amount of money spent for the pilot project recently finished in Pune. It claims to cover around 200 hectares of Pune agricultural college and is supposedly put together for just Rs 2 Lakhs. Ok, we might be able to do better network planning and maybe even discover a better solution to reduce costs, but the figure will still be more than $ 2-3 mn (Pune is after all a far bigger city than a tiny Mountain View). And then there are maintenance and support costs which are a continuous drag.

Some might say, capital in India is not a big deal. Private sector is always ready to jump in with cash. Can agree. That brings me to the bigger question- why do we need city wide broadband access anyway? How many people are really mobile in a city with their wi-fi enabled PDAs , laptops? If you just have a PC and prefer to work from comfort of your home, you are better off with a broadband like BSNL which will me much cheaper and reliable. And come to think of it, India needs to get the basics right first. Good quality roads, traffic etiquette, reliable power supply, potable water are some teething problems which we should try to solve first.

This is not to say that the campaign "unwiring Pune" is futile and should be relinquished. No, just add more sense to it. Learn from the lessons from across the globe. Don't plan to cover the whole city in one shot. First choose parts which really need mobile broadband, like say Koregaon park and Hinjewadi. As and when you feel the need, you can always add more access points.

We need to compete with the best of the cities in world. And we need to add a dash of local flavor to make their solutions work. The marketing punchline "Think Global, Act local" seems apt here.

-nIkUnJ