India's leading telecom giant Tata Communications Internet Services Limited and Australia’s largest provider of Wi-Fi hotspots Tomizone have announced a partnership deal by which TCISL will use Tomizone proprietary software to usher in a Wi-Fi revolution in India.
According to the Prateek Pashine, COO, TCISL, there is a need for higher penetration of Wi-Fi hotspots where laptop and Wi-Fi enabled device users can connect to the internet. Currently there are less than 1000 Wi-Fi hotspots in India with Tata Indicom Wi-Fi having a share of over 50 per cent. As a result of this partnership, the number of such hotspots can grow manifold in a much shorter time and also give retail consumers to take part in this exciting new business opportunity.
With this developments, Tata Indicom broadband subscriber will able to access or set up Wi-Fi hotspots at their premises instantly. Besides his or her personal usage, the customer will also get an opportunity to utilize their unused bandwidth by offering it to others, say neighbors. In return, they will get credit (of internet surfing time) on their account, thus subsidizing the cost of their Broadband connection.
India has among the lowest penetration of broadband in the world at about 0.6 per cent with 6.62 million subscribers as on June 2009. India is expected to take a leap in penetration with a Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) and IMRB Broadband Report forecasting 214 million subscribers by 2014. The partnership with Tomizone is a step in bridging the gap in broadband penetration in India.
