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