Advertisment

Govt takes steps to bolster Wi-Fi

author-image
CIOL Bureau
Updated On
New Update

NEW DELHI: In its bid to encourage PC penetration within the country, the Government of India stands fully committed towards realizing the full potential of cutting edge technologies like Wi-Fi and is looking forward to deregulating different wireless standards. Government of India Ministry of Communications & IT Department of Telecom Wireless Advisor, PK Garg revealed this during his inaugural session at a national conference on Wi-Fi in Delhi.







"We know that Wi-Fi is one such technology which can take IT to the rural India in a big way and we are working towards that. As of now, we have deregulated the 802.11b standard, which operates at 2.4 GHz frequency. Other standards such as 802.11a and 802.11g are restricted, but work is going on to deregulate them as well," he informed.







Talking about various aspects involved in deciding about the deregulation, Garg said that it is due to interference of different technologies that it is not possible to deregulate the full spectrum as of now and this is acting as a barrier towards resolving this problem. "Wi-Fi frequency bands have been in use for different systems like point to point communication and even satellite linking between different software companies, etc. and it is not possible for the government to shut down those systems at the moment. So we should devise some system, wherein all the technologies can coexist," he explained.







It may be noted that the government permits the use of 2.4 GHz indoor wireless technology with a limitation on 100 mili watt power. At present, the government is engaged in trying out different technologies to evaluate whether wireless technologies operating at 4.2 or 5 Ghz can coexist or not.


"Government is approaching these issues with an open mind and we are ready for trials and use the whole spectrum in the best way possible. This is only possible when the vendors, users, service providers and the government work hand in hand. We are ready to try out these technologies both indoor as well as outdoor level," he added.







Accepting the fact that most of the new systems are going to be designed keeping in mind the 5 GHz band, Garg added that the government would have a similar approach towards 5 Ghz band as well. "Delicensing the 5 Ghz is very important as most of the new systems of growth are predicted to come from this band. We are going to consider 5GHz the same way as we do with the other bands," he informed.







Citing non-availability of localized content within India as one of the biggest hurdles in the path towards increasing PC penetration, Garg said that India should look forward to having a Korean model. "Korea went in for a major localized content and increased its PC penetration by leaps and bounds within a short period of time.

Localized content coupled with wireless can trigger a high PC penetration wave within the country. Computers have contributed a lot towards the usage of wireless spectrum and now spectrum should do its best to increase computer usage," he added.





(CyberMedia News Service)



tech-news