Re: "Free" WiFi in Delhi

Ken

Thanks for some sanity and points of reference. For me, this is not
about the technical aspects of providing pervasive WiFi. Its well
understood by most everyone here that the frequencies are finite and
for a badly designed network eventually shaky. Its the political and
commercial problems which concern me.

1) Delhi is both a "State" as well as a "Union Territory". This has
certain regulatory nuances, and its not clear who will licence the
WiFi players, ie presuming it needs to be licenced at all :-)

2) As we have been discussing on this list, there is an impending 4G
roll-out by a large "new" player which has the potential to severely
distort mobile internet pricing. Many of us recall how under the garb
of treating a mobile handset as a computer and their catchphrase
"sometimes a mobile sometimes computer", in 2003, this WLL "last mile
connectivity" player, who then subverted a new Govt., initially
bypassed having to get a mobile licence until I personally queried the
TRAI demanding to know how their calls were interconnecting to other
telecom networks which needed inter-connect agreements, and caused
them to get a UAS eventually after I filed a letter PIL with TRAI's
eventual 3 line reply to me in the SC

3) This time about, a fairly new political party, AAP, had promised to
convert Delhi into a State with free Wifi everywhere as part of its
election manifesto. This promise was very widely publicized for
seeking votes. The "terms and conditions" were never disclosed. This
in conjunction with the foregoing causes us to smell a rat as the
4G.rollout is clearly a key factor mentioned in the background
documents

4) As my organisation "India Against Corruption" has some overlap with
AAP's brass, in the sense that we are not strangers to each other, we
didn't take their promises seriously. We were, however, concerned to
receive recent information from inside AAP and GoNCTD of impending
corruption and favoritism in this scheme. Its private info we've got
and I don't shirk from saying so in the same way we have also never
shirked from opining that AAP is the "A" team for the Congress and the
"B" team of the BJP.

5) So considering all this, and many other things, all I am interested
in now is for transparency in the consultation process. If this delays
the WiFi in Delhi process, its better that it happens now, although I
would be the last person to delay it if it was honest and beneficial.
I am certainly aggrieved that a public consultation process initiated
by the Secretary of a Dept. of Government has been somehow converted
into a party exercise where the "signal" is getting drowned out by
crowd-sourcing "noise", and that the instigators for this. members of
this list, also did much the same thing for an intertwined matter
before the TRAI. All the signals reaching me indicate this is linked
to the 4G roll-out and new telco cartels taking shape.

6) BTW, I have not said that our co-list-members are unqualified. I
have, however, publicly said, and certainly on this list, that if
somebody has a conflict of interest its better disclosed up front
rather than raked up later. This obviously applies to me also.

7) For me personally, the bottom line is HONESTY and TRANSPARENCY
before all else in core aspects of the process, irrespective of any
"good" in the outcome. I also don't believe in "votestacking" by using
social media for such processes.

Sarbajit

On 4/26/15, ken <[email protected]> wrote:
> Gentlemen,
>
> If I may offer an opinion, based solely on an educated outsider's
> perspective and as someone who has no particular cause to champion
> (other than the belief that a free high speed internet connection is a
> great goal to aspire to, please let me make the following observations.
>
> As to my qualifications, I built a wireless internet network back in
> 1999, long before the WiFi standard was formed. I have consulted on
> several projects including one which spanned an entire country. I was
> one of the founding members of WISPA (Wireless Internet Service
> Providers Association) and a spokesperson for the MuniWireless industry.
> At present I live in an area which has pervasive WiFi connected to a
> wireless SONET ring. This type of network could be easily replicated
> pretty much anywhere for far less than a typical wireline network.
>
> To set a premise, it needs to be understood that the frequencies any
> such network would be built upon are finite. I state this knowing that
> without some reasonable amount of planning and coordination, these
> networks can grow to the point where self-interference causes them to
> collapse.
>
> I am somewhat familiar with two of the three people being discussed here
> and would suggest that they seem eminently qualified to provide both
> input as well as make recommendations as to how such a project could be
> rolled out. In fact, it would seem obvious that pretty much any member
> of this august list would be better suited to the job than the
> overwhelming majority of people we could select from.
>
> Speaking directly to Sarbajit Roy's concerns, certainly the expectation
> of transparency is important as long as it is not a delaying tactic. If
> you believe that the people on this committee are unqualified, feel free
> to make that case. If you believe that any of these people are not
> committed to this project and are serving to better their own interests,
> this is also something which might be explored.
>
> Sadly, what I am reading is vague accusations and thinly veiled
> dispersions that something might happen in the distant future. My
> professional recommendation would be to continue closely monitoring the
> actions of this committee and  should such issues come to pass address
> them at that time.
>
> Further, after sharing my experience I would ask, what exactly do you
> plan to bring to this discussion? Do you offer a specific technical
> solution? Can you speak to the economics and sustainability of a project
> such as this? Exactly what kind of management organization would you
> propose to run such a network?
>
> Based on more than a decade of "fighting the good fight" in this arena,
> what I have seen is any number of people - all with the best of
> intentions - manage to cloud the issue with irrelevant chatter which
> typically led to the collapse of these projects. While this might not be
> your explicit intention, for the life of me, I cannot understand what
> else it is that you offer.
>
> Please educate me in this matter.
>
> Respectfully,
>
> Ken DiPietro
> Cumberland MD
>
>
>
>
> On 04/26/2015 07:26 AM, sarbajit roy wrote:
>> Vickram,
>>
>> In case you hadn't noticed, the question is about the "committee"
>> itself, and which was why I posted to this list in the first place
>> seeing as how 3 regular posters here apparently constitute this
>> committee.
>>
>> You may have also overlooked that I had linked to relevant documents
>> setting up the case for potential conflicts of interests. I could
>> equally allege, and I shall if the silence persists, that A or B were
>> appointed BECAUSE they are conflicted - and hence predisposed to a
>> certain outcome.
>>
>> Its also curious that nobody on this list is willing to comment on the
>> licencing and other legalities of offering pervasive free WiFi in
>> Delhi..
>>
>> I can also tell you one more thing, my name and that of 3 other
>> "activist" persons who had replied to the official public notice were
>> removed as speakers at the last moment to prevent us from making
>> presentations or voicing our concerns; and also to accommodate several
>> telecom corporates who came in through the back door of the Delhi
>> Dialogue Commission at the n'th moment sensing the golden goose.
>>
>> Perhaps Mahesh, as a member of DDC - or its WiFi task force, can
>> respond directly, since I haven't imputed any villainy on his part,
>> instead of making me complain to the GoNCTD.
>>
>> Sarbajit
>>
>> On 4/26/15, Vickram Crishna <v1clist-/[email protected]> wrote:
>>> When the question is phrased differently, it kinds of deflates.
>>>
>>> A. If the committee suggests a monopoly/duopoly... (I have seen no
>>> recommendation, and see no point crying fire before the smoke
>>> appears)...
>>>
>>> You have insinuated that Mahesh might contribute to a situation where a
>>> company in which he or his fund is invested gets all or part of some
>>> unknown
>>> cash cow in public WiFi. If he does, he will get some solid flame on
>>> this
>>> list, and from here it will doubtless spread to both the social and
>>> traditional media.
>>>
>>>
>>> But he hasn't.
>>>
>>>
>>> I refuse to be a party to such unfounded speculation, for which the term
>>> insinuation is apt. Still, since you doubtless have some reason of your
>>> own
>>> for believing in his villainy, if he ever does, I am confident we will
>>> get
>>> to hear about it in two ticks of a cow's tail, and no prizes for
>>> guessing
>>> who will alert us.
>>>
>>> Sent from Yahoo Mail on Android
>>>
>>> From:"sarbajit roy" <[email protected]>
>>> Date:Sun, 26 Apr, 2015 at 2:50 pm
>>> Subject:Re: [india-gii] "Free" WiFi in Delhi
>>>
>>> Vickram
>>>
>>> To dumb it down, since you and Arun and others were the ones fighting
>>> for unrestricted micro-FM, micro-cells-wireless mesh etc...
>>>
>>> A) Do you support creation of monopolies / duopolies of Statewide
>>> micro-communication hotspots in a hasty / non-transparent manner ? ie.
>>> a hijack in the name of the deprived.
>>>
>>> As for me, I have done my homework - right or wrong, and I believe
>>> that 'Arvind-ki-dukaan' is wide open for business,and I am protesting
>>> !!
>>>
>>> Sarbajit
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