
Chennai, Nov 6. Perhaps not surprisingly, the messages from most of the speakers are the same at the Wireless World Research Forum, currently held here. Asian telecom markets are booming; (Where else you see one country adding 7 million new mobile customers per month?) this is the right time to take ICTs to rural and less privileges sections of the society; affordability too, not just technology is a key issue, and wireless, not wired is perhaps the sure solution that can make the transformation. More or less, that is the bottom-line emerging.
Midas Communication Technologies CTO Rene Abraham’s presentation “Wireless DSL for Rural India – Challenges and Requirements” today highlighted some of these issues. The photo shows one of the solutions developed by Midas to open broadband to the rural areas at affordable levels. This switch and antenna combination is capable of providing 512 k wireless broadband links within a circle of 8 km radius.
2 Comments
ramu
Sir
this is ramu from balaji broadband & wireless Networks , hyderabad. At present i am providing wireless internet at rural areas. can u send me the product details and prices for those prodects,
Thanking you
P Ramu
Dharmendra Misra
Hi
The technology which doesnt work on basic networked principle doesnt survie in competitive market where telecom as a whole is headed. there is a need for low cost but HIGH VALUE (Unfortunately both vendor and operator never look over Value) solutions for rural and upcountry market. Irrespective of past work and regulator slapped levy on operator we still dont see any significant mile covered when it comes to rural telephoney.
Its baseless that rural population doesnt want to spend money on telecom but its unfortunate that telecom world provides them only a box i.e. handset having no localized content and no agri-application to use other than an opportunity to make voice call and that can be made by public booth so why should a common rural man who is definitely intelligent should go to become a subscriber.
We cannot think of rural telephony without looking at real use and value addition to the community. Moreover it is not going to be cost effective to provide any service without having an unconventional approach towards solution that may not come till we think only on access media of one type. We need to think again in line of Uncle Sam (my favourite Sir Sam Pitroda) to provide access instead of imposing a box on each head.
I am proud of Midas in taking all steps towards rural telephony.
A Decade-Long Cycle: Nepal’s Emergency Communication Resilience Report Card, 2016 vs 2026
What we recommended after the 2015 earthquake, and what 26 August 2026 showed Bottom Line Only 3 of 120 Nepal Telecom sites were flooded. On the worst day, 83 were down.
LIRNEasia at the IDRC EmpowerED Global Convening in Uruguay
On 13–16 October 2026, the EdTech Hub hosted the IDRC EmpowerED Global Convening in Montevideo, Uruguay, bringing together regional partners to share lessons on educational technology (EdTech) and AI in education. LIRNEasia CEO Helani Galpaya and Senior Research Manager Isuru Samaratunga participated in the convening, where Isuru shared emerging lessons from the EdTech Asia Hub, drawing on five regional country projects.
Nepal’s Bhotekoshi Disaster: Every Link Existed, Nothing Joined Them
On 26 August 2026, every component of Nepal's emergency communication system existed, including seismic monitoring, river gauges, a forecasting agency, a national SMS service, two mobile networks, volunteer mappers and a command post. What failed were the connections between them.
Links
User Login
Themes
Social
Twitter
Facebook
RSS Feed
Contact
9A 1/1, Balcombe Place
Colombo 08
Sri Lanka
+94 (0)11 267 1160
+94 (0)11 267 5212
info [at] lirneasia [dot] net
Copyright © 2026 LIRNEasia
a regional ICT policy and regulation think tank active across the Asia Pacific