Going Wireless with Wi-Fi in India

You are in India on business and you have brought along your Wi-Fi enabled Blackberry, PDA or laptop. As you wait to board your flight at the airport, you wish you could work on your spreadsheet. You are sipping on cappuccino at an Indian coffee shop and you wish you could check your email. At your hotel room, you wish you can download a few songs or play an online game. You no longer have to wish for wireless internet in India, as Wi-Fi is no longer a dream, but a reality in India.

Wi-Fi though limited to metro cities in India, has been deployed in SOHO sectors, Indian enterprises, coffee shops, airports, luxury hotels and campuses for the last couple of years. In 2010, the city of Mysore became the first Wi-Fi enabled city in India, with hotspots covering the entire city and surrounding villages. Today, Wi-Fi enabled Mysore is the second in the world after Jerusalem.The Indian Government has embraced Wireless Fidelity or 802.11 and is spreading the wireless mesh by setting up Wireless Local Area Networks (WLANs) in Indian metros.

Wireless Fidelity and Wi-Fi hotspots

Wireless Fidelity or Wi-Fi as it is popularly known is a wireless standard that is used for connecting Wi-Fi enabled electronic devices such as laptops, smart phones, audio players, PDAs and gaming consoles to the internet within the range of a wireless network connected to the Internet. While a single hotspot can cover a range of 20 meters indoors, Wi-Fi can cover large areas with multiple overlapping access points. Wi-Fi also has a greater range outdoors.

Hotspots are sites that employ Wi-Fi technology and provide internet access over a wireless local area network. Routers are connected via a link to an internet service provider. You can find hotspots at airports, train stations, restaurants, coffee shops and other public establishments.

Wi-Fi hotspots in India

Bangalore, Delhi, Pune, Mumbai, Kolkata and Chennai have a decent Wi-Fi coverage. Major airports and railway stations in India do offer Wi-Fi, which are either free or paid (Rupees 60 to rupees 100 an hour). Indian Barrista coffee shops and Cafe Coffee Day outlets, which have branches across India offer free Wi-Fi. You can surf the net or check your emails while sipping on your cup of coffee.

Luxury hotels in India, like the Oberoi and The Taj group of hotels situated in Bangalore, Delhi, Mumbai and Hyderabad offer wireless internet to their guests. As you wait at the hotel lobby, dine at the restaurant or unwind in your room, you can surf the internet without having to attach a telephone line. Other places in India, where you might find Wi-Fi are libraries, bookstores, hospitals, supermarkets, department stores and fuel stations.

How does Wi-Fi work?

Wi-Fi uses a specific type of wireless local area networks (WLAN) that functions on specifications confirming to IEEE 802.11b. The term Wi-Fi is used when referring to any kind of 802.11 networks, whether it is a dual-band, 802.11a or 802.11b. The Wi-Fi Alliance, a registered trademark tests, approves and certifies products as interoperable with each other, even if they are from different manufacturers.

You can use a Wi-Fi Certified product with any brand of an access point along with any other brand of certified hardware. If your Wi-Fi product uses a radio frequency of 2.4GHz for 802.11b or 11g, 5GHz for 802.11a, you can be sure it will function even if it is not Wi-Fi certified.

Wi-Fi has gained a global acceptance as a smarter alternative to wired LANs. Today, many airports, hotels, coffee shops etc have hotspots that provide public access to Wi-Fi networks, so people can get connected to the internet on the move.

Locate an Indian Wi-Fi hotspot near you

Now you can productively use every free second you get by accessing the internet through the nearest Wi-Fi hotspot.

Free Wi-Fi hotspots in India

Visit this link http://freewifiwiki.net/index.php?title=India to find a list of free Wi-Fi hotspots located at Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore, Kolkata, Kerala, Gujarat, Goa, Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal.