Wi-Fi Technology in Indian homes, is India ready!


By:
R.K.Choudhary
Ramesh_chy@rediffmail.com


-/June 07, 2004 Wi-Fi Technology News/-A new breed of wireless technology had started to take a shape as we were marching towards new millennium. Hotels, Coffee shops & Airport lounges around the world started to make available access modes for wireless- Local Area Network. A number of community wireless networks have also come up in Europe, North America & Australia.

Organizations started implementing WLAN; because this technology offered flexibility building adhoc networks of computing resources in a community, as it also opened up additional avenues for building a wireless based last miles in areas where wire line connectivity is not feasible. The tether less nature of connectivity provided its user almost unrestricted mobility and facility to access it from anywhere.

A step forward in the era of wireless network is Wi?Fi Technology. Wi- Fi Technology is the burning topic of today, as it let PCs and other electronic devices, connect wirelessly to the web. The US consumer Electronic Association has put Wi- Fi on their list of the top five technologies to shape consumer electronics industries in 2004-05. Intel commented that the? people want to wirelessly transfer MP3 files from PC in the den, so that they could listen to them on their stereo in the family room, they want to review digital photos on their big screen TV, or to watch video on handheld devices?. Intel is also betting on Wi?Fi Technology, and announced at the start of this year that it is investing millions of Dollars in the digital home.

As the IT giant started its tactics to capture the market of this upcoming promising technology, a big trade dispute aroused between Intel Corporation and the Chinese Government. China made its own encryption standard for Wi-Fi and Beijing wants component makers to incorporate its own standards for wireless security into any chips sold in China. Although, gimmicks behind all this is purely business, China insists it is only ensuring that Wi?Fi is secure.

The controversies on the name of security and technical aspects are not appreciable, as the industries are exploring the possibilities of compatibility of Wi-Fi chips rapidly. The reason behind such controversies seems to be only the intention of industries to capture the market and establish a monopoly in this technology.

There are some valid reasons and good trends for the IT giant for giving much importance to Wi-Fi technology. As laptop and handheld device prices are dipping day-by-day, more and more people will have and use them; this will take Wi-Fi mainstream. With Broadband subscription prices falling worldwide, wireless broadband will potentially increase Wi-Fi adoption. The real values to the mobility factor that is brought in by mobile computing in addition to gadgets such as digital cameras & DVD players go wireless, the time for wireless home network is just about to come.

Wi-Fi @ Indian home has different Scenario. Unwiring Indian home doesn?t look so simple in compare to Western countries. There are some definite issues considered as far as the Indian home is concerned, like Broadband availability, Low PC penetration, Security, Perceived cost, Low education levels and Vendor indifference. Another major hurdle seems to be civil construction of the Indian home. The average Indian house is made of concrete and in most cases is restricted to one story in comparison to western countries, which are made of wood and stretches up to at least two floors.

But besides the above highlighted darker sides of Wi-Fi @ Indian home, we should not ignore the fact that India is the second most populous country in the world. India is shining, and its middle class is becoming more and more IT savvy. Whereas the Wi-Fi market worldwide is growing at an exponential rate, this rate would not be applicable in the Indian Wi-Fi market. However, after all, there should soon be a notable increase in its Wi-Fi market due to its size.

The good sign for the Indian home is that there seem to be a steep decrease in the prices from some vendors in the past few months. A dream of Indian Wi-Fi home network connectivity at the rate of Rs.1 lacs seems to be a realizable. Their low price will inspire a good number of Indian home to be Wi-Fi enabled. The efforts of D-link, Linksys, Asus, Apple, Compex and Zeos Infotech are very encouraging for people thinking to set up their Wi- Fi home network .

By:
R.K.Choudhary
Ramesh_chy@rediffmail.com

(The Writer is Program Director at APIIT SD India, Panipat.)

Editor: Tim Festprint, Wi-Fi-TF