Wireless net strides Bangladesh

["Ashish Kotamkar" <ashish@mithi.com>]

Wireless net strides Bangladesh
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/2303431.stm
By Alfred Hermida
BBC News Online in Bangladesh

The computer lab at the Bangladesh Agriculture University in 
Mymensingh is little more than a building site. The only sign of any 
kind of technology is a tall radio mast on the roof of this leading 
agricultural college.  

But once the work is completed, the staff and students here will 
enjoy fast internet access via a wireless link to the capital, Dhaka, 
more than 100 kilometres away.  

The university is one in a group of institutions of higher education 
due to be hooked up to the net using wireless technology, in a 
project funded by the United Nations Development Programme, (UNDP).  

Age of information  

At the moment the university relies on a modem housed in a cupboard 
with wires trailing along the wall to connect to the internet over an 
unreliable phone line.  

A radio tower provides a wireless internet link  

"Without information systems, you are isolated in the world," said 
the Vice-Chancellor, Mustafizur Rahman.  

"Information is essential to Bangladesh in terms of business and 
science. This is the age of information."  

The network is intended to do more than just link up the universities 
in Bangladesh, allowing them to share information.  

The aim is to set up a national wireless network, with the 
universities acting as regional internet centres.  

The centres would provide low-cost net connections to hospitals, 
schools and non-profit groups in rural areas where going online is 
difficult.  

"At the moment they rely on a dial-up to Dhaka over an unreliable 
landline at a slow speed," said Dr Hakikur Rahman, the project co-
ordinator in Bangladesh.  

"With a radio link we can offer speed of up to 64,000 bps using a 
series of transmitters that will bounce the signal across the 
country."  

Out of date?  

Creating a national wireless internet network comes at a price. The 
five-year project is receiving $1.4m from the UNDP, as well as 
additional funding from international donors such as the Department 
for International Development in the UK.  

It is part of the UNDP's Sustainable Development Network Programme, 
which is active in about 50 countries.  

The scheme was conceived in the early 1990s as a way of taking 
advantage of wireless technologies to take the internet in developing 
countries.  

But the programme has had mixed success. In countries with no 
telecommunications infrastructure, like Bhutan, the scheme has worked 
well.  

UNDP officials in Bangladesh admit the project has faltered.  

"The idea is still valid but the technology has moved on," said the 
UNDP representative in Bangladesh, Jorgen Lissner.  

"It still has its place, though. The project was an early attempt to 
give academic institutions access to journals and other materials via 
the internet."  

"We do not pretend that this will cover the needs of the next 
generation, such as children in secondary and primary school," he 
admitted.  

"But you need a nucleus of people with an understanding of this tool. 
Eventually it will filter through to schools."  

Uncertain future  

Experts are concerned about who will pay for the running and upkeep 
of the national wireless network once the international funds have 
dried up.  

"There is an issue over whether the network can be self-sustainable," 
said Partha Pratim Sarker of the technology for development website 
Bytes For All.  

"There is a real need for such a network in Bangladesh. Technology is 
rapidly changing so we are always looking for cheaper technologies," 
he said.  

The backers of the project hope that the wireless network will 
eventually be able to pay for itself by offering internet access to 
rural communities.  

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Warm regards, 
Ashish Kotamkar (ashish@mithi.com)