Come summer of 2010 and the city of Chennai will be completely encased in a WiFi mesh set up by Zylog Systems India, a subsidiary of US-based Zylog Systems. Branded as Wi5, the wireless broadband service will be rolled out in Bangalore, Delhi, Mumbai, Hyderabad and Kolkata too. Zylog owns a category A internet service provider license and can operate in all of India’s DoT circles. Nikhil adds: This appears to be the first commercial deployment of WiFi Mesh networks in India: the only other deployment that comes to mind is of the AirJaldi WiFi mesh network in Dharamsala. What I'd been told, is such a network is possible in a mountainous region, due to the lack of obstructions, and in a city, connectivity will be intermittent due to a large number of obstructions. Not Hotspots: Metro Wifi Connectivity; Trains Too Zylog is still conducting a trial of its WiFi service at the city's corporation building. It has now covered a few parts of the city and will expand to cover it entirely by mid-2010. Zylog has already set up 250 wireless nodes and will be putting up 4000 more. How Wi5 will be different from the current hotspots model is that the nodes will be set up on roofs of buildings - similar to towers by telcos. Its business model will also be different - the company will offer subscriptions to the network via the retail route. Users will have to pay in advance the rental charges for WiFi…
