Wi-Fi technology enabling economic and social development in rural and urban India: Report

Mumbai: The rising adoption of Wi-Fi technology in India has been enabling social and economic development across the region, says a new research sponsored by the Wi-Fi Alliance and conducted by Tonse Telecom.

The report, titled Wi-Fi in India: A Key Enabler of Economic, Social and Community Development, cites growing laptop sales, rising broadband penetration, and use of mobile phones for rich content transfer as key harbingers of widespread Wi-Fi use among a growing segment of India's more than 1.1 billion citizens.

The study forecasts that in the next three - four years (by 2011-2012), the market for Wi-Fi networking gear and services (excluding laptops, handsets, and chip sets) in India will top $890 million, marking a 36 per cent compound annual growth rate (CAGR) from 2008.

With real estate development exceeding 30 per cent annual growth, deployment of Wi-Fi networks in new residential, retail and corporate construction is cited as a key opportunity for Wi-Fi device manufacturers and service providers.

The report profiles the work of a non-profit organisation, Byrraju Foundation, which leverages Wi-Fi technology to connect rural farmers to experts in agriculture, remote patients to doctors, and young villagers to training and employment opportunities. Also profiled in the report, startup venture O-Zone has set its sights on urban development, bringing Wi-Fi service to consumers and mobile workers at home, in public places, and on the corporate campus.

"We have numerous members both within and outside of India who have engaged in this exciting market, and clearly there is plenty of opportunity," said Wi-Fi Alliance executive director Edgar Figueroa. "Since Wi-Fi is a powerful, affordable, and proven technology, it is being used in innovative ways to aid the development of India's economy."

"Wi-Fi has an important role to play in India's economic development," said Sridhar T Pai, chief executive of Tonse Telecom. "Wi-Fi brings high-throughput, easy-to-use last-mile connectivity to homes, offices, and public spaces and can enable communities and enterprises to grow and thrive."

The Wi-Fi Alliance is a global, non-profit industry association of more than 300 member companies devoted to promoting the growth of wireless Local Area Networks (WLANs). The paper builds on previous research sponsored by the Wi-Fi Alliance released in February 2007.

With the aim of enhancing user experience for wireless portable, mobile, and home entertainment devices, the Wi-Fi Alliance's testing and certification programs help ensure the interoperability of WLAN products based on the IEEE 802.11 specification.

Wi-Fi adoption patterns will be unique in India. According to the report, Wi-Fi adoption is likely to occur via handsets as well as notebook computers in India. India's more than 240 million cellular subscribers increasingly use handsets for entertainment and social networking applications. With Wi-Fi increasingly deployed as a feature on the handset and the Wi-Fi hotspot footprint on the rise, many Indian residents are likely to use Wi-Fi without ever owning a computer.