Baramati pilots Intel's WiMax

Baramati today pipped Pune to become the first town to get WiMax services in the country. The pilot project was inaugurated by Intel Chairman Craig Barrett, who is here on his eighth visit to India.

"WiMax is an inexpensive way to cover a large area and is ideal for rural towns, which have limited access to other infrastructure," Barrett said.

WiMax, or worldwide interoperability for microwave access, is WiFi on steroids. While WiFi's range is about 30 metres, WiMax covers a radius of 50 km with wireless Internet access.

The pilot project has been deployed by Intel along with Aircel and the Maharashtra government on the 3.3 GHz frequency over 20 km and 6 km. It will be available in Baramati and four neighbouring towns and will allow bandwidth speeds of up to 512 kbps.

Research firms Maravedis and Tonse Telecom have predicted that India will have 13 million WiMax subscribers by 2012.

Intel had announced it planned to start WiMax trials over the next few months in several cities across India, including Mumbai, Delhi and Bangalore.

Pune was to be the first WiMax city in India with commercial deployment scheduled for November on the same frequency of 3.3 GHz.

However, this project has been delayed because the Pune Municipal Corporation and Intel, which is the implementation partner in Pune, too, are awaiting technical clarifications from the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India for commercial deployment of the technology in the city.