October 2003 updates

WiFi Hotspots Emerge in India
by Madanmohan Rao in Bangalore, India. October 2003

Key Indian ISPs such as those owned by the Tatas, the Bharti group and Satyam Infoway are commencing operations on WiFi hotspots in India.

Satyam Infoway (Sify) has launched a WiFi service in the airports of New Delhi and Chennai for Rs. 60 per hour; WiFi cards can also be rented.

The Bharti group, which already has broadband DSL offerings, will augment this service with WiFi boxes for Rs 3,000. This package is targeted at residential users; other targets include conference and trade show venues like Pragati Maidan in New Delhi.

India's version of Starbucks, the Barista café chain, has 15 WiFi-enabled locations in Mumbai and Delhi, thanks to a tie-up with Tata Teleservices, which has a stake in the coffee chain. Tata also plans to target distributor networks and warehouses.

Campuses like those of the International School of Business in Hyderabad and the Indian Institute of Information Technology in Bangalore already offer WiFi access to students. Intel has begun marketing PCs with its wireless Internet chip.

Data Access is working on seamless migration from WiFi to GSM-based Internet coverage. Systems integrators active in the business include Tulip IT Services and Convergent Data.

Some hotels in India like Le Meridien and the Taj hotels already have WiFi installations. Offices of companies like Microsoft and Punjab National Bank are WiFi enabled.

But the number of hotspots in India is at best a few hundred today. The number of laptops sold each year in India is a meagre 16,000. Government rules also do not encourage wide-range WiFi deployment. And business models for revenue share are still being worked out.

Yet, growth is expected to mushroom next year. Cisco expects that the fastest growing markets in the Asia-Pacific region for Wi-Fi will be China, India and the Philippines.