Three Cheers For Connectivity

In late January, I traveled to Calicut, to speak at the National

Institute of Technology. Because of the strange flight-connections to/from

Calicut (you can get there from Dubai, but not from Bangalore) I decided to

travel by train, which takes about 12 hours, but is comfortable enough.

Now if there is one thing that scares me it is loss of

connectivity for any period of time. Whether via my notebook or my PDA-if I am

not connected, I feel lost.

I need not have worried.

Sitting in the train, I was able to stay online for almost the

entire trip, without having to pay a single penny more than I normally would. In

fact, even when I reached Calicut, and there were issues with the campus Wi-Fi

(I could connect in the corridor, but not in the room) I had connectivity

whenever I needed it.

On the way back, Yahoo's Shanker "Shanu" Balan shut

his notebook down halfway back to Bangalore, after spending most of the time

downloading some stuff at 128 Kbps. Connectivity issues? "Nope". Then?

"Notebook battery exhausted".

Kalyan Varma, a security expert gone naturalist, has another

tale to tell. He is currently deep in the jungles of South India, has access to

electricity once a day for a couple of hours, and the people there haven't

even heard of the Internet. He tells me all this over Instant Messenger chat,

while browsing the web, sitting under a tree somewhere in the middle of a lush

green forest. And sends me a picture of a tiger that he photographed just

minutes earlier.

And Dataquest's Prasanto Kumar Roy emails me from his car,

half way between Delhi and Gurgaon. And he assures me that someone else is doing

the driving while he is typing-though I don't quite believe him.

So what was this magic that Shanu, Kalyan, PKR and I were

working with? How could we remain connected and online in the middle of nowhere?

Has wireless networking (Wi-Fi) really spread so far and wide?

Have the commercial connectivity vendors managed to do in India what is still a

dream in the US of A or Europe-country-wide availability of 802.11b/g

connectivity-not just in cities and hotspots, but everywhere?

No, it hasn't, and they haven't.

Like so many people across India, we use wireless

connectivity provided by our cellphone operators-GSM (GPRS) and CDMA based

Internet connectivity, not Wi-Fi.

Sufficient Connectivity



Many of us use our corporate LANs to connect to file servers to access

files, databases, printers and other LAN services. These activities typically

require quite a lot of bandwidth. In fact, many people complain about the slow

speed of their switched 100 Mbps LANs, and are already eying gigabit networks.

However, the need for speed notwithstanding, wireless LANs,

using 802.11b (11 Mbps shared) and 802.11g (54 Mbps shared) are becoming very

popular, especially among people for whom connectivity essentially means three

things-email, web browsing, and possibly, instant messaging. And all three use

a common carrier-the Internet.

Unlike corporate LANs, Internet connectivity tends to be far

slower-speeds as low as 28.8 Kbps to a max of about 2 Mbps are common, with

consumer broadband services providing speeds of 28.8-512 Kbps to homes. While no

one would mind faster speeds, it is a fact that even at 28.8. Kbps over dialup,

most people can get a lot of work done. I would term this "sufficient

connectivity".

Perpetual Connectivity



The world has been holding its breath ever since wireless networks have

started appearing at airports, coffee shops and, of course, corporate and

education campuses. Everyone has been looking forward to being connected all the

time, everywhere. Switch on your device (laptop or PDA), and you are connected

to the Internet. "Perpetual Connectivity".

To many, Wi-Fi has been the most promising of technologies,

and people have been looking forward to the time when Wi-Fi services will become

available everywhere.

Sadly, this has not happened and for a number of reasons,

ranging from government regulations to commercial issues.

Cellular phone service companies provide data (and hence,

Internet) services via their phones, treating the phone handset as a modem.

While GSM data services had been around for as long as cellular networks

themselves, the extremely expensive, unreliable and slow (9.6 Kbps) connection

speeds, plus the fact that you still needed an account with an Internet service

provider, made this pretty unpopular.

Sometime in 2003, things began to change. Cellphone operators

in India began providing connectivity via their phones-GSM providers like

Airtel used GPRS (General Packet Radio Services) as a medium to give speeds

approximately equal to that experienced with a 54 Kbps dialup connection, while

CDMA providers like Reliance raised the bar considerably by providing speeds as

high as 128 Kbps.

The downer in all cases was the cost of connecting-with per

kilobyte and per minute charges that quickly inflate the monthly phone bill to

frightening levels. It was hardly surprising that consumers didn't exactly

take to these services like fish to water.

All this changed when the providers realized that in a

volumes game, you need to make things attractive enough for the consumer, before

you get to see large numbers of subscribers. And so, in late 2004, almost all

cellular phone service providers introduced "flat rate" tariffs-you

pay a flat amount, no matter how long you are connected, or how much data you

transfer. An example of this is Airtel's immensely popular GPRS-600 service-you

pay Rs 600 per month for unlimited connectivity. Reliance recently introduced a

similar plan for Rs 650 a month. Both providers saw a massive surge in people

subscribing to these connectivity services, typically at the cost of networks

that were still charging by the time or volume, who quickly began to look very

unattractive.

Everywhere Connectivity



By early 2005, it became common for many people to simply use their mobile

phones as their primary Internet connectivity, especially users of mobile

devices. Even when Wi-Fi is available at, say, a conference or meeting, users

find it more convenient to use their already configured GPRS or CDMA services

via their phones, rather than struggle with configuring for the local Wi-Fi

network.

The first magic word-Convenience: Add to this that unlike

Wi-Fi services, cellular data services are available almost anywhere that

cellular phone services are available. In a country like India, where mobile

phones are quickly overtaking fixed-line phone connections, this means that you

can stay connected just about anywhere that you can make a mobile phone call

"every where connectivity".

The second magic word-Anywhere: And if you use a service

from a company with a sane tariff plan (ie a "flat rate" plan), you

end up paying exactly the same amount every month, no matter how much (and

where) you use the services (provided you roam within the provider's network,

of course).

The third magic word-Affordability: And just to complete

the picture, add-Predictability: Sure, there are still hiccups involved, but

these are usually one time, right at the beginning, when you first subscribe to

the service. Once you have everything configured, you will find that you can go

anywhere you want, switch on your notebook or PDA, and connect without having to

think where you are.

Sometimes, however, you need to get a little bit creative.

Remember my talking about Kalyan in the jungle? Well, he had

a problem-the place where he currently works (the Biligiri Rangana Temple

Wildlife Sanctuary) does have faint signals from various providers, but the

strongest one is by a provider who does not offer GPRS services. Kalyan is a

geek first, and a naturalist next, and not being connected to the net is as

painful to him as it is to me.

His solution?



He climbs a tree, and fastens his mobile phone to a branch at the top, so

that he can get a stronger signal from his primary provider (Airtel). Then he

climbs back down, sits with his back against the trunk of the tree, and

connects, using his notebook or PDA, via his phone some 30 feet above his head,

without using any wires.

How does he do that?



Using Bluetooth wireless connectivity.

Atul Chitnis The

author is a Bangalore-based technology consultant