
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.
LIRNEasia Senior Research Manager Gayani Hurulle at the Internet Governance Forum Sri Lanka 2026
The Internet Governance Forum Sri Lanka (IGF Sri Lanka) 2026 was held on 23 September under the theme ‘Empowering the Internet in the Age of Intelligence through Multistakeholderism’. The event brought together stakeholders from government, industry, academia, civil society and the technical community to discuss key issues in internet governance.
Is Personally Identifiable Information safe in the hands of the State?
In an article published on 25 September 2026 in the DailyFT, LIRNEasia Chair Professor Rohan Samarajiva discusses the risks of the state holding large amounts of personally identifiable information (PII). He looks at the misuse of electoral-registry information during the July 1983 pogrom, which critics of public-service digitalisation, particularly the Sri Lanka Unique Identity (SLUDI), cite as a reason for extreme caution, if not halting such initiatives.
LIRNEasia is hiring: Senior Researcher
LIRNEasia is looking for a talented individual to join the team as a Senior Researcher to drive impactful research. The full job description can be accessed below.
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