Broadband

Bangalore to get free WiFi, free garbage

A few months ago Bangalore was upset with their beloved elected members (MLAs) because they were on a ‘study tour‘ to Argentina, Chile and Peru. At times we citizens jump to conclusions; we all thought they were wasting money. But now we learn they went for something good – they indeed had something to bring back from Buenos Aires (Argentina). According to the Bangalore Mirror article Buenos Aires shares the same problem as Bangalore – uncleared garbage! But I wonder if Bangalore inherited this garbage problem after our MLAs study tour.

Uncleared garbage in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

Last weekend Bangaloreans were thrilled to read that they may get free Wifi across the city but had to settle for living with garbage. Bangalore could become the second city in the world after Buenos Aires to get free Wi-fi. Some info from Wikipedia (as of today’s version),

Bangalore: Area 741 sq km, population 8.4 million.
Buenos Aires: Area 203 sq km, population 2.8 million.

Anyway, what is the plan for this free Wi-fi scheme?

All property owners get a unique ID.
There are 16.9 lakh properties in Bangalore.
Bangalore will be divided into three zones – busy, congested and remote. (Which part of Bangalore is not congested??)
Each property will be given a login and password to use this free Wi-fi facility.
Bangalore will need 600 free Wi-Fi zones.
To implement this a lot of networking hardware has to be bought by the govt. Tenders will follow and so will..well let us leave it at that.

India has about 130 million internet users, while Argentina has 28 million internet users. While such schemes are music to our ears it would be good if the local body BBMP can do something about the garbage clearance, it is hurting our eyes. Let us pray this free Wifi is not some pipe dream.

BG Mahesh

Internet application ideator and implementor. Been there and done that since early 1990s. I like to present data to the common man in the simplest manner on the internet.