Realty firms set up Net-ready homes

Real estate developers in cities like Vadodara, Ahmedabad and Surat have started constructing houses with infrastructure for Internet connections.

"So far we have received about 10 inquiries for giving connections to the entire societies or colonies where builders have constructed houses with necessary provisions for Internet connections. A large number of residential building sites have houses ready with concealed wiring and common server installed, where we just need to give one connection to provide Internet access to the entire colony," said Ravi Sharma, regional head, Iqara, an Internet service provider (ISP) in the state.

Under the arrangement, the ISP gets bulk booking and do not need to do spread-wire in the entire colony.

In many older buildings ISPs have to seek the permission of the office bearers of the colony before laying his network.

"The trend is growing fast and especially non-resident Gujaratis are asking for such facilities. As the Bharat Sanchar Nigam has also started providing leased line services at almost every corner of Ahmedabad at a competitive rate vis-a-vis the dial-up connections, demands for such facilities are going up every day," said an Ahmedabad-based developer.

"Normally customers do not have awareness about getting the facility of readymade network for Internet connectivity but people do appreciate the provisions made at home," said Vadodara-based real estate developer Sanjay Patel.

"Once the concept becomes popular in the state, people would enquire for Internet connectivity too, just like electric and telephone connections while buying homes," Patel said.

Two of the colonies developed by Patel in Vadodara provide concealed wiring and server for Internet. The common fund created by the residents would take care of the maintenance of the system.

"Ahmedabad and Surat have more such properties compared to other cities in the state. In Gujarat, we normally have optical fiber network as a back bone and rest of the wiring is done with basic cables," said Sharma.