Mysore goes wireless with Wi-Fi

Mysore is the only city in India to become completely Wi-Fi enabled. The city
area spanning 130 sq km has gone wireless. The Mysore 'hot zone' was made
possible by a local ISP called Wi-fiyNet, which has erected three towers at
different corners of the city. State IT and BT Secretary, Shankaralinge Gowda
inaugurated the wireless service.

According to Wi-fiyNet Director, Shankar Prasad, "We wanted to showcase
this technology in Mysore and want to replicate this model in other cities in
India." A central tower, which acts as a central access point, and two
other towers form the framework of the wireless infrastructure. Each tower costs
around Rs 20 lakh and this investment has been borne by the company. The 108
Mbps network runs on a secure WEP (Wired Equivalent Privacy) protocol.

Next on the radar is Kushalnagar in Coorg, located in a hilly terrain and a
potential hub due to the presence of a Tibetan monastery and huge tourist
inflow. Shankar added, "We plan to build south India's longest Internet
link spanning 96 kms from Mysore to Kushalnagar." Providing Wi-Fi
capabilities in a tough terrain like Coorg would be an excellent technology
showcase.

Wi-fiyNet, which is a registered ISP in Mysore, is trying to migrate its
subscribers from wired to wireless Internet. "Right now, we have around 50
active subscribers and plan to increase to a 1,000 by March 2005," informed
Shankar. The company is trying to sign on local engineering colleges, medical
transcription companies and software companies for the service.

The company is ambitious about its plans to take Wi-Fi to other cities.
"We want to go for a franchisee business model and will initially look at
the south Indian market. We will start looking for suitable business partners
starting December this year," Prasad said.

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