BBC says that Intel has bid goodbye to the project and instead wants to focus on it’s version of a run down “cheap” laptop. All “noble intentions” indeed. I am glad that the frigging babus did not invest crores of public money to support the hair brained idea. Nevertheless, I report here because there was lot of hue and cry about the “mesh networking” and the works.

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The investments in public health are more urgently required. If the government is serious about spread of computing, let them abolish the taxes for five years, allow more manufacturers to set up manufacturing plants (but not the silicon as it’s environmentally very damaging) and encourage cheap unlimited broadband. Unfortunately, the policy makers need to get their heads out of sands and breathe some fresh air.

However, it was MIT’s decision to load up Linux which probably irked Microsoft; as if it thrust a whole pound of chilli paste up theirs in public view. It hurt them and this project seems to have been embroiled in a controversy.

The reason I post this here is because India is the intended beneficiary; while the technology demonstrator concept sounds good in theory; we’d be much better off minus all these public stunts.

Anyway, the above mentioned story was first reported on New York Times. (link via Rajeev Srinivasan.) Later on it was picked up byDigg.

Given the huge amount of money at stake, Linux popularity and bruised egos, it’s not hard to imagine the Bill Gates and his cahoots could sit back and lie down. Hence they tomtommed their own version of “cell phone with Internet facility”.

Craig Mundie, a Microsoft vice president and chief technical officer, said in an interview here that the company is still developing the idea, but that both he and Gates believe that cell phones are a better way than laptops to bring computing to the masses in developing nations.

We all know what horse crap is this all about. Here’s one of the world’s richest men making such a statement! Brains and money don’t go together. The problem is that they aren’t afraid to be the laughing stock of the entire world! I mean, imagine Gates grinning about Windows and saying that it’s the “best”!

Negroponte’s One Laptop Per Child project sounds phoney in the first place. Incidentally, I believe they were the same group who wanted to start something in India; the exact details elude me though.

Some business and development policy specialists have raised questions about Negroponte’s laptop, pointing to the price of Internet connectivity, which can cost $24 to $50 a month in developing nations. But Negroponte said networking costs would not be an obstacle because the laptops would be made to connect automatically in a so-called mesh network, making it possible for up to 1,000 computers to wirelessly share just one or two land-based Internet connections.

Not a good idea in my opinion; would someone enlighten me as to what would be the end user speed in this case? Secondly with almost next to nil investments in localised content creation and excessive zeal to block Internet resources, would this really benefit?

Something that we really need here is a thin client server model which would make sense. The laptop runs Internet wirelessly; we all know that intended countries have their telecom networks in shambles while BSNL gets abused like an overused slut who , linguistically speaking, cannot be raped more.

The intended beneficiaries are :
Thailand, Egypt, Nigeria, India, China, Brazil and Argentina.

To round it off, I would concur with the following statement by some worthy fellow:

Stuart Gannes, director of the Digital Vision Program at Stanford University, said a better way to bring computers into poor countries would be to put them into the hands of entrepreneurs and make them revenue generators. “We need to look at technology as a way to bring cash into the poorest communities,” Gannes said.

All we need is some common sense and freedom from tyranny of Governmental control.

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There is a comparison with the spread of electricity in US with the present day structure of broadband. Mind you, Indian Telecom companies follow discriminatory tactics like locking in with the crappy modems, or long term contracts. Much like their counterparts in the west. Primarily, we as consumers aren’t united in our approach. Nor there is any pressure group like media espousing the cause of Broadband.

Dealing with the frustration of poor spread of electricity in rural areas, a Rural Electrification act was passed. In effect this meant that municipalities were able to generate their own electricity. Unthinkable in Indian terms but remember, this was in 1935.

In 1935, he created the Rural Electrification Administration (REA), which gave loans and other help to small towns and farmer cooperatives interested in setting up their own power systems. The REA turned out to be one of the New Deal’s most successful programs. Within two years, hundreds of new municipal power utilities were up and running across the country, and within 20 years, virtually all of rural America had electricity, provided either by rural co-ops or big utilities spurred to action by municipal competition.

Last year, sensing their citizens were being stranded on the wrong side of the digital divide, Philadelphia’s leaders launched an ambitious plan to blanket the entire city with wireless Internet service. To provide universal, affordable Internet access, Philadelphia plans to construct a gigantic “wireless mesh network”—a system of interconnected antennas placed on streetlights, traffic signals, and public buildings. Each of these “nodes” broadcasts a broadband signal, which connects up with other nodes to create a cloud of Internet access for PCs, laptops and wireless devices. The technology is similar to the “Wi-Fi hotspots” that have popped up at cafes and libraries across the country.

Much like the Internet lampostsI had mentioned earlier.

Community Internet has the potential to revolutionize and democratize communications in this country. And that may be the reason why big cable and telephone companies and their political allies have launched a sophisticated misinformation campaign.

Much of this has relevance for India too.

Exisiting “Wi-Fi” networks operate in “junk bands” cluttered with signals from cordless phones, microwave ovens, baby monitors and other consumer devices. At lower frequencies–like in the television band—signals travel farther and can go through walls, trees and mountains. Opening up some of this spectrum would make Community Internet systems much faster and cheaper to deploy, allowing a new generation of broadband entrepreneurs to enter the market. The broadcasters are about to return a sizable chunk of spectrum as part of the digital television transition, a portion of which could be reserved for Community Internet if Congress doesn’t auction it all off to the cell phone companies.

While India’s IT “prowess” is debateable, we are clear laggards in mass adoption of Information Technology. It would be out of scope here to list out the reasons, but then here are the statistics for US.

According to the Department of Commerce, 95 percent of new jobs created will demand computer skills. And a 2001 Brookings Institution study estimated the widespread adoption of basic broadband could add $500 billion to the U.S. economy and create 1.2 million new jobs per year. Simply empowering local governments and community groups, in coordination with private entrepreneurs, to provide universal affordable, broadband may be the single best thing we can do to make America the pre-eminent economy—and democracy—of the 21st century.

Imagine the amount of employment generation it would be for India.

As I mentioned before, we need to have imaginative solutions for nagging problems.

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This post compares the BB vis-a-vis the “developed nations” who didn’t have the likes of BSNL. The post is about freeing up American Broadband and make it affordable. The telecom companies are playing a spoiler and in all probability cartelised their services.

We have been a late starter- nevertheless floundering. First with a flawed policy and now the Director Planning BSNL claims that you need a Pentium 4 PC to run broadband! Such preposterous claims and I find the future of the Broadband nipped in the bud.

Anyway, I quote from the Salon article:

Next time you sit down to pay your cable-modem or DSL bill, consider this: Most Japanese consumers can get an Internet connection that’s 16 times faster than the typical American DSL line for a mere $22 per month.

Across the globe, it’s the same story. In France, DSL service that is 10 times faster than the typical United States connection; 100 TV channels and unlimited telephone service cost only $38 per month. In South Korea, super-fast connections are common for less than $30 per month.

Further:

While other countries are taking advantage of the technological, business and education opportunities of the broadband era, America ( here India) remains lost in transition.

Simple answer to the perplexing problem:

These nations all have something the U.S. (India) lacks: a national broadband policy, one that actively encourages competition among providers, leading to lower consumer prices and better service.

US’s regulatory body FCC defines broadband as:

A “high-speed” connection as one capable of transmitting data at a rate of 200 kbps (kilobits, or a thousand bits, per second) in one direction — about four times the speed of dial-up.

So, their definition is worse than that of TRAI! Rejoice!

Comparing what the speeds mean ( Salon is “bitching” about the fact that they can’t download high definition video- we as Indian subscribers have just 1 GB limit) even as we struggle with “slightly- faster- than-dialup”narrow band!

The typical download speed of a DSL connection in the U.S. is 1.5 Mbps, while the average cable-modem connection downloads at 3 Mbps. These connections are adequate for streaming low- to standard-quality video, but are far too slow for applications like high-definition video. Furthermore, they pale in comparison to what is being offered in Japan, where consumers can download high-definition movies in less than five minutes.

How unbundling the local loop helps:

Most of the countries surpassing the U.S. in broadband speed and availability have “open access” rules governing both their cable and DSL industries. Open access rules require the owner of a network to allow its competitors access to the network at wholesale prices. These rules usually apply to networks that are “natural monopolies” like telephone systems and railroads, and in order to ensure innovation among competitors, these provisions usually do not apply to newly built infrastructure. Ultimately, open access benefits consumers by creating competition that leads to lower prices and new innovative services. You can credit open access with the drop in long-distance rates seen in the 1990s.

What is the alternative to this impasse?

The most promising alternative to the cable-DSL duopoly is Community Internet — universal, affordable high-speed broadband service provided by cities and towns or community groups.

Further:

Hundreds of places……are now viewing broadband as a public service, no different from water, gas or electricity.They are building Community Internet and municipal broadband projects to bring high-speed Internet to areas overcharged or underserved by the cable and DSL companies.

What is community service?

“…a few places receive broadband over power lines, or fiber laid directly to homes, the majority of Community Internet projects utilize “Wi-Fi” technology to create “hot-spot” zones of broadband coverage or, in many cases, build a “mesh network” to blanket an entire city.”

Can this be a viable service model in India?

Nations such as Canada and South Korea long ago realized the importance of public broadband, and incorporated municipal systems into their overall broadband strategies.

How Community networks would change the face of Internet access:

If wireless networks were able to operate on lower-frequency spectrum — such as the region used by over-the-air television stations — the infrastructure costs would be much lower, potentially allowing Community Internet networks to offer extremely fast connections for as little as $10 per month.

Note that Wifi spectrum in the 2.4 Ghz band has recently been de licensed. However, we haven’t seen a surge of the hotspots so far.

Ultimately, it’s all about asserting your rights. Instead of twitching and twidling our thumbs, we ought to make some effort. I tried to make some effort but it came to a naught I can’t do it alone and obviously need your help to make India a truly Broadband India- not at the mercy of whims and fancies of incompetent idiots.

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