Pune becomes country's first ''wireless'' city

Pune, Apr 2 (UNI) Pune, the cultural capital of Maharashtra, today became the country's first ''Unwired'' city with the launch of the ''Unwire Pune'' Project at the hands of Union Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar.

The Project makes the city the first in the country to have commercially meshed Wi-Fi and WiMax deployment. The untethered fast network access to millions of users from the private, corporate and administrative sectors was now possible.

Addressing a gathering, the city's Civic Municipal Commissioner Nitin Kareer said, ''It will now be rolled out in an evolutionary manner over the next 12-18 months providing seamless ubiquitous internet connectivity available throughout the city. In phase-I, the deployment targets to provide wireless connectivity to an area of 20 square kilometre covering Deccan Gymkhana, Sambhaji Park, Aundh, Baner and Model Colony areas in the city.'' ''This phase will be completed in 4-6 months and the entire project will cover 250 sq km of the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC),'' he informed.

The trials were going on in the city's Cantonment Area from March last year. It was approved by the PMC, he said.

Intel India was selected as the chief technology and programme managemnet consultant by PMC in 2006 to design the project and its deployment began today with Microsense, a selected service provider, who will roll out the network and offer broadband wireless services, Mr Kareer added.

UNI