Wi-Fi everywhere in India soon

In the next few months, you may see a slew of product launches of wireless broadband devices from phones and laptops to netbooks and iPad look-alikes.

Industry analysts say the auction of basic wireless spectrum is set to open up a new market for wireless broadband devices and services, aimed at making your home and office, always connected.

3G operators are also expected to use both Long Term Evolution (LTE) and WiMax to support their network for voice as well data services.

“We’ve had a talk with many operators who’ve won in the wireless broadband spectrum auction. We expect the WiMax broadband service to be priced a bit higher at about Rs 500-700 per month,” says CS Rao, WiMax Forum chairman.

“But with almost 20 million users expected to subscribe to the service in next two years, it may generate revenues of about $3-4 billion, which will help them break even,” he adds.

Smartphones devices like those provided by HTC in United States currently cost about $300, for WiMax cum GSM phone, while LTE handsets are yet to be launched. Laptops like those offered by Dell, Lenovo, HP, HCL with embedded WiMax cost about Rs 500 more than the WiFi enabled laptops.

To connect to a WiMax broadband network, with a laptop or PC, one will need a WiMax router, which may cost about Rs 2,000, about Rs 600 more than the price of a WiFi router in the market. WiMax dongles may cost about Rs 1,600-2,000, in the international market.

At the recently held Computex Taiwan, at least a score of iPad like WiMax smartbooks were launched at prices ranging from $300-500. Wireless broadband is the technology through which high-speed Internet connection can be accessed over the widespread area.

Unlike traditional technology, it is preferred where Local Area Network (LAN) wires are not available to access Internet.

This will enable citizens to watch TV on internet, live cricket matches, university lectures on their devices without interruption. It may open a whole new market for content in entertainment, education, e-governance and m-commerce space. Travel booking market will get a boost.

BWA may open the doors to services like finding a route via GPS on the go, or booking a rail ticket while moving in the car, faster and easier. Tele-education in remote villages, telemedicine and web connectivity for citizen services will now be easier.

In hilly regions, where downtime of internet exceeds to weeks in case of wireline broadband, now things may become easier with wireless internet. Surveillance monitoring in security zones will get a boost with WiMax cameras.

Various networks such as WiMax, LTE, Flash-OFDMA support high speed data networks. WiFi also offers wireless broadband. But WiMax is better than WiFi in a sense that besides faster speed, it offers broadband on the go.