Thursday, January 10, 2008

Wi-fi amid the chaos

A portable wi-fi detector is increasingly becoming part of personal music/video devices. This helps to avoid having to open a laptop just for checking the presence of a wi-fi network.

With a phone like the new Nokia N95, it is even more simpler. You can detect, and connect/browse. Recently, at the Bangalore Railway Station (Majestic) with not much to do I took out the phone & searched for networks. Imagine my surprise when I found two strong-signal wi-fi networks!

Indian Railways seems to have a small corner where people have received the message. They have set up RailTel to provide such a service, in collaboration with private parties like AirLink & Tata. Convenient, except that there was absolutely no indication that it was a wi-fi zone.

One would expect a bit more professional-quality promotions from AirLink & Tata. I hope they are working on it, while also ensuring a rapid roll-out. If they can blanket every railway station, airport, mall, cafe, bus depot with their network, there will be a lot more willing to sign up assuming there are flexible plans for fixed/limited period users.

Imagine - wi-fi in a decrepit garbge-littered railway platform, with almost no space to handle even one more person. Only in India! Isn't it incredible ? Just don't look at the tracks.

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