Mumbai, Aug 13: A novel project, Digital Gangetic Plain, is being implemented by IIT Kanpur to provide wireless Internet telephony to rural areas in Northern India using simple focussing antennas-- directional antennas. The pilot project was initiated by the IIT Kanpur along with MIT media labs Asia in four villages, where the IEEE`s 802.11b (standard) base system--an unlicensed technique—is used as a cheap alternative to provide rural telephony, according to the chief coordinator, Prof Pravin Bhagwat. “In the first phase, the project covered two and a half km from IIT to a primary school in Lodhar and in the second phase six and half km from the institute to an NGO in Mandana. Both of them have shown great success and we have began the third stage covering longer distances,” Bhagwat said at the on-going international conference on Internet communication here today. IIT has also trained professionals at local levels enabling them to be on their own, he said.
The current project aims to move away from the philosophy of USO---Universal Service Obligation and try to bring down the cost through such simple but pervasive technology. Asked whether similar projects are carried out by anyone else in the country, Bhagwat said in Southern India, Prof Ashok Jhunjunwallah in IIT Chennai has been experimenting with the technology and has recently set up commercial ventures too.
In Northern India, the project taken up by IIT Kanpur is the first of its kind, he added.
Bureau Report