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| Internet
to chug fast through railway networknews |
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Venkatachari Jagannathan
09 March 2000 |
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Indian trains may chug slowly and miss time schedules, but the same cannot be said to be true of the Internet, if it is accessed using the railways' communication lines. Moreover, if only the railways' cable network is properly used, one can cover about 4,000 towns and probably provide one lakh Internet connections all over small towns and rural areas in less than two years.
Said P. R. Goundan, chief signal engineer, South Central Railways, Secundarabad, "Indian railways have 13,500 route km (RKM) of communication cables, of which 1,500 RKM is of optic fibre. The average distance between two stations is just eight-10 km.
The railway cable used for voice telephone has one unloaded cable, which can be used for setting up an Internet network all over the country by using DSL on copper system designed by
IIT-Madras, he said.
Currently, a pilot project is on, using the cable network between the Vijayawada-Guntur route in Andhra Pradesh. While the railways will not become an ISP, it will rent out its cable to an ISP who will pay rental charges as per the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India's guidelines.
According to Goundan, Internet kiosks can be set up at railway stations, either by ISPs or their franchisees. "Using corDECT technology, the facility can be extended to areas up to a 25 km radius from a village station," he added.
It is learnt that Ashok Jhunjhunwala of IIT Madras is talking with the railway board for setting up a single window clearance body for ISPs to approach. It is also learnt that Satyam Infoway Ltd and World Tel have shown interest in this venture.
also see : see World Tel to roll out community Internet
centres
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