Infrastructure
development using
wireless technology
A glimpse of the past WiFi to bypass Telco last mile
This article will “PaguyubanNet”, the earliest form on Over half of the Internet infrastructure op-
demonstrate the Internet in Indonesia was established in
1993, as a result of considerable effort and
erating costs goes for paying the Telco last
mile. This phenomenon is what drives com-
path and expertise contributed by a handful of
national digital pioneers. “Paguyuban” is a
munities to seek alternate solutions to build
their own network to bypass the Telco last
experiences in Bahasa Indonesian word meaning “helping
each other”.
mile. One of the easiest ways to accomplish
this is to use the off-the-shelf low cost WiFi
facilitating a Prior to the establishment of Paguyuban-
Net, in 1986, early network development
(Wireless Fidelity) technology running at
2.4GHz & 5.8GHz band. WiFi wireless
community was inspired leading amateur radio pioneers.
This inspiration was carried forward by sim-
Internet solutions can be found on the Web
at http://sandbox.bellanet.org/~onno/,
movement to ilar radio experiments performed by students
at the Amateur Radio Club (Institute of
http://www.wavelan.com,
www.ydi.com, and http://www.wipop.com.
http://
Contacts
draft decree on WiFi. The decree is still open and many Indonesians For inquiries regarding the community-based ICT infrastructure, please write
hope that the Ministry will consider the numerous benefits, both to Onno Purbo (onno@indo.net.id). For further information and other
economical and social, that will emerge if the WiFi band is liberat- inquiries regarding this article, please submit your request to Frank Tulus,
ed. 1 US$400 to ISP for 24 hours/day divided by 10-30 neigh- Senior Program Officer, Pan Asia Networking, IDRC (ftulus@idrc.org.in) or
bours From the chart above one can see the significant increase in Chaitali Sinha, Research Officer, Pan Asia Networking, IDRC
WiFi equipment upon liberalization of the WiFi band. Currently (csinha@idrc.ca).
neighbourhood networks encourage local SMEs (Small and Medi-
um Sized Enterprises) to manufacture antennas and towers at a Acknowledgements
lower cost than their foreign competitors. With the increase from This article has been reviewed and editorial comments made by
5,500 units to 130,000 units, manufacturers will be able to pro- Mr. Frank Tulus, Senior Program Officer, Pan Asia Networking, IDRC
vide a lower price to the end consumer due to the principle of (ftulus@idrc.org.in) or Ms. Chaitali Sinha, Research Officer, Pan Asia
economies of scale. The current demand of 5,500 units is not suf- Networking, IDRC (csinha@idrc.ca).
ficient to provide incentive for new manufacturers to enter the This community initiative is fully supported by the International
market. However, the increase in demand to 130,000 units will Development Research Centre (IDRC) and the Bellanet Secretariat in
translate into a lower per unit manufacturing cost. Canada.
‘Wi-Fi’ying the Dal Lake - A project that was killed within days of its birth
The recent reports about the Dal Lake WiFi projects in the ment no such project existed. The CEO of IPEAKS, the ISP
newspapers and the Internet highly publicized it as the Lake in partner of the project, revealed, “Yes, we WiFied the Dal Lake,
the world with wireless Internet Access. The project is conceived but , it is not functional anymore . I had fixed all the equipments
by the Dax Networks and is being implemented in partnership and it worked well for 12 days. Then we got a call from the DoT
with Jammu & Kashmir Department of Tourism and IPEAKS, a (Department of Telecom, Government of India) asking to remove
leading ISP of the state. all the equipment immediately. According to DoT the project was
According to reports “it is the first such instance in the world illegal as it violates the policies regarding WiFi. The DoT has
where a lake has been converted into a hot spot.” The idea behind asked IPEAKS to obtain a WPC license to use WiFi at the Dal
the project was to ensure that Kashmiris at large are not denied of Lake. However according to experts there no such violation as
what the rest of the country has access to. The promoters of the using WiFi within a complex is allowed and Dal lake is a single
project hoped that this project would give a new dimension to complex under the control of J & K Tourism department. Irfan
Kashmir and will lead to an increase in the foreign tourists to the Raza, CEO of IPEAKS says” We were using 3 antennas which
valley. The project conceived that , people and tourists alike can covered a range of about 4 km . Had this project been allowed to
access Internet while staying in House boats as well as while mov- work ,we had further plans like setting up Wi-Fi in Gulmarg ,
ing on the very popular Shikara Boats. mini set ups at the tourist spots ,Wi-Fi in Katra (a very popular
Enthused by the reports the author had gone all prepared Hindu Pilgrimage) and elsewhere in the valley .”
with his WiFi enabled Laptop to access the Internet in the midst Rishi Chawla, Country Representative, GIPI
of the beautiful and scenic Dal Lake. However to his disappoint- rishi@gipi.org.in