24.11.08

BSNL plans WiMax in Goa

Goa’s dream of surfing the net on the move — with WiMAX internet connectivity — and joining the league of cities across the world such as Atlanta, San Francisco, London and Stuttgart by the year end, has been put on hold. The reason: important licences and clearances for the project have not been issued by the central government yet.The hardware for this cutting-edge technology has arrived. “We have received the servers and base transceiver stations. However, we are pursuing procedures to obtain the licences required to run this technology, which is all that remains to be done,” general manager of Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL), Goa, G R Ravi said. The two clearances to be received from the centre are a wireless planning co-ordination clearance and a nod from the standing advisory committee on Frequency Allocation, also called FACSA. “We are pursuing procedures for these clearances with the directorate of telecommunications,” he said. Altogether around 25 sites have been chosen in Goa where base stations for the technology will be installed. To start with, BSNL will roll out the WiMAX at Calangute, Panaji and Verna. Thereafter installations will be taken up progressively at Margao, Mapusa, Vasco, Ponda and Porvorim in the second phase. BSNL is also working out the pricing of the project, and though the initial proposal was that the annual tariff would be Rs 12,000, Ravi assures it will be lesser and not too hard on the pocket. WiMAX (Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access) offers high-speed transfer of data — as much as 10 megabytes per second — within a radius of a few kilometres from the base station. It differs from Wi-Fi technology, which lets one use a broadband connection solely for surfing the internet in a limited area such as an office, or a social hub such as a restaurant or an airport. WiMax uses microwave radio frequency instead of cables with the aid of a device known as a Customer Premises Equipment (CPE). It is the size of a landline telephone and can be lugged along so that the user can access the worldwide web, wire-free at home and office or at any other location — provided that all these places fall within the WiMAX umbrella. The CPE is an important component of WiMAX technology. It is powered by alternating current (AC power). It has to be kept inside the office (or home) and allows one to access the internet if one’s computer is within a 15 metre distance from the CPE. The BSNL has gone into a joint venture with a private Indian agency, Suma Networks, in order to usher WiMAX into Goa.

2 comments:

Unknown said...

BSNL has gone into joint venture with SOMA Networks (not Suma) and SOMA Networks is a US Company based in the Silicon Valley.

Anonymous said...

Soma in Goa? its not a dream its a nightmare!!! The service is the most awful i have ever encountered in my life. there is no customer service only customer cheatimg I will tell all my friends to keep away from this "DREAM"