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Internet

Inside Google’s RailWire Project Which Provides Free Internet That Works

by Loknath Das April 5, 2024

written by Loknath Das

Inside Google's RailWire Project Which Provides Free Internet That Works

HIGHLIGHTS

Google’s free Wi-Fi is available in 140 railway stations
The company offers fast-internet access for half-an-hour at no charge
Here’s what you could expect from Google’s RailTel project next

Tarun Tyagi, a Faridabad resident, visits Nizamuddin railway station six to eight times a week as he commutes back and forth from work. Only a year and a half ago, to kill time time as he waited for his train, the 24-year-old would read newspapers or roam different platforms. Now he uses that time to download a couple of movies and to update all the apps on his Android smartphone using RailWire’s free Internet.

Tyagi is one of the six and a half million passengers who visits one of over 100 railway stations in India that offer Internet access at over 24Mbps speeds for half an hour at no charge every day. Post this period, the commuters are free to use it the entire day, should they want, but the speed drops to about 1Mbps.

Announced in 2015, RailWire’s Internet is a joint project by Google and state-owned telecom infrastructure provider RailTel that aims to bring free Wi-Fi access to railway stations across India. Google has already deployed RailTel routers and switches at 140 railway stations, and the company says it is on track to double that number by the end of next year.

The free Internet that works

Gadgets 360 spent some time at the Nizamuddin railway station Monday on Google’s invitation and spoke to several passengers who were using RailWire. Several regular passengers and vendors say the service works as advertised, even when the place is crowded.

people using internet railwire gadgets360 copy 312417 152431 7973 Google India

A Google executive said the company has deployed the RailWire network at stations in such a way that a passenger would always receive optimum signals. At any point, a passenger is under the coverage of three to four switches – two from the same platform and rest from the adjacent platforms.

“As we scaled our efforts, we have ensured that the network can serve every passenger,” the executive said. However, the company has also reduced the access duration for the fast free Wi-Fi from an hour to 30 minutes.

In a conversation with Gadgets 360, Gulzar Azad, Country Head of Connectivity at Google India said the company is pleased with the way it is scaling the RailWire project, and with the quality of Internet it is providing. “The data speeds that we offer to millions in India with RailWire, and the reliability of the connection, you wouldn’t find it at most international public places,” he said.

But even as Google scales its RailWire project and brings the service to more stations, has the appeal of its free Wi-Fi waned over the past one year as mobile data become more affordable in India? Azad doesn’t think so. He said the arrival of Reliance Jio last year was certainly “a learning experience” for the company, but it hasn’t impacted the growth of RailWire. In addition, people at the railway station continue to use RailWire service.

“At that time [When Reliance Jio was just launched] we were at five million monthly active users with our RailWire project. But since then we have added about 30 to 40 stations and we haven’t seen any decrement in number of users,” he said. A spokesperson for RailTel told Gadgets 360 that the company has observed a “steady growth in both volume of data used by a customer and in adoption of RailWire.”

Moving forward, Google plans to work on two things, in addition to expanding RailWire to another 260 railway stations. The company will make it easier for passengers to sign-in with RailWire. At present, passengers login to the service by providing their mobile number and authenticating themselves by a one-time password they receive on their phone. Azad said the company plans to make the login experience easier. “Later this year, commuters will see multiple ways to login to RailWire,” he said, without offering any further details.

google wifi rail gadgets360 312217 152257 1689 Google India

The other challenge for Google is finding a model to sustain the service. It is working with the Indian Railways and RailTel on this. Today, a commuter only sees one ad when using the RailWire service. It’s the ad that appears on the login page. Would Google ever serve more ads on the RailWire service? Azad told us that there are many ways to monetise, and it doesn’t have to be just ads.

In general, he said, when a user accesses fast-Internet at the railway stations, they are more likely to consume more Internet when they go home as well. This helps several businesses, he said.

Google plans to complete the roll-out of RailWire at 400 railway stations by the end of next year, or early 2019. That would conclude the project. With RailWire, the company only intends to provide free Wi-Fi at railway stations, Azad said.

But the company won’t stop with its connectivity efforts there, he said. Next on the agenda is a project which Google is already working on – turning several Indian cities to smart cities. This is part of Google Station project, which the company announced last year. The idea of the project was conceived based on the feedback received on the RailWire project, Azad said.

“As a result of this great usage that we are seeing here, we created Google Station as a product platform. Through this we believe, we can create the same experience at other point of convergences. We are looking to partner with various ISPs, exploring several venues, and wherever there is an opportunity to do public Wi-Fi, we will make it happen,” he said. “We are working on smart cities and we are looking at some more partnerships.”

In the meanwhile, people at the railway station continue to enjoy the free Internet. Many say that there is no alternative to Google’s service when it comes to a fast Internet that “always works.”

[“Source-gadgets.ndtv”]

April 5, 2024 0 comment

Internet

Hyderabad City Wi-Fi Project Launched With Over 1,000 Hotspots

by Loknath Das April 5, 2024

written by Loknath Das

Hyderabad City Wi-Fi Project Launched With Over 1,000 Hotspots

HIGHLIGHTS
‘Hyderabad City Wi-Fi’ project will cover 1,000 public places in the city
Assures bandwidth of 5-10Mbps offering 30 minutes of free Wi-Fi
The remaining 2,000 places will be covered in next three months
The Telangana government on Tuesday launched ‘Hyderabad City Wi-Fi’ project, providing the wireless networking technology at over 1,000 public places in the city.

Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) Mayor B Rammohan, who launched the project, said it will eventually cover around 3,000 hotspots in the city.

Telangana IT Secretary Jayesh Ranjan said 3,000 public locations were identified in the city. The network has now been installed at 1,000 hotspots with an assured bandwidth of 5-10Mbps offering 30 minutes of free Wi-Fi. The remaining 2,000 places will be covered in next three months.

The entire project is being rolled out at a cost of around Rs. 300 crores, he said adding that the money has been invested by the industry.

In June 2015, under the ‘Digital Telangana’ umbrella, the government had launched the pilot version of the ‘Hyderabad City Wi-Fi’ project.

Based on its success, the government decided to scale up the project to cover over 3,000 locations across Hyderabad, through industry participation.
The project will be also be extended to Telangana’s Warangal, Karimnagar and Khammam districts, Ranjan said.

“We will stabilise it first in Hyderabad and based on how it is working, we will extend it to three other districts,” he told reporters on the sidelines of the event.

Asked about the security aspect, the IT secretary said, “Misuse is also happening…there is a need to ensure that such things don’t happen.”

“There is security apparatus and there are some empanelled companies which provide security coverage against unauthorised usage of Wi-Fi. We will be talking to them and work on how the whole city can be covered,” he said.

Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI) is the technical adviser to the Telangana government in the project.

COAI Director General Rajan Mathews said the government and the industry worked together for this ambitious project.

[“Source-ndtv”]

April 5, 2024 0 comment

Internet

Google’s Internet-Beaming Project Loon Balloons Hit Legal Snag in Sri Lanka

by Rajdeep April 5, 2024

written by Rajdeep

Google's Internet-Beaming Project Loon Balloons Hit Legal Snag in Sri Lanka

Google’s venture to beam the Internet to remote areas of the world via balloon has hit a legal snag in Sri Lanka that could see the project abandoned on the island, a minister said Thursday.

“Project Loon” uses roaming balloons to beam Internet coverage and planned to connect Sri Lanka’s 21 million people to the web, even those in remote connectivity black spots.

But just a year after testing began in Sri Lanka regulators have been unable to allocate Google a radio frequency for the airborne venture without breaching international regulations.

Communications minister Harin Fernando said the Geneva-based International Telecommunications Union (ITU) was opposed to Google using the same frequency as Sri Lanka’s public broadcasters to provide its Internet.

“It boils down to a legal issue,” Fernando told reporters in Colombo.

“The government as well as Google are lobbying the ITU, but if we fail there’s a risk Google will go to another country that is not bound by these rules.”

Google’s giant helium-filled balloons act as floating mobile base stations, beaming high-speed Internet to areas beyond the reach of ground-based telecommunication towers.

The first of three balloons – which roam the stratosphere at twice the altitude of commercial aircraft – entered Sri Lankan air space a year ago after being going airborne in South America.

The government and Google planned a joint venture where Colombo would receive a 25 percent stake, without any capital investment, for sharing its cellular spectrum with the project.

One of the balloons was found in a Sri Lankan tea plantation after its maiden test flight last year, although authorities described it as a controlled landing.

About one-third of Sri Lankans have regular access to the Internet, a figure expected to swell through the Loon project.

Sri Lanka was the first country in South Asia to introduce mobile phones in 1989, and also the regional frontrunner when it unveiled a 4G network three years ago.

[Source:- gadgets.ndtv]

April 5, 2024 0 comment

Internet

Google Parent’s Project Loon Internet-Beaming Balloons a Step Closer to Deployment

by Rajdeep April 5, 2024

written by Rajdeep

Google Parent's Project Loon Internet-Beaming Balloons a Step Closer to Deployment

Google parent Alphabet said Thursday that artificial intelligence-infused navigation software has significantly sped up plans to deploy Project Loon Internet balloons to serve remote regions of the world.

Word that being able to more smartly guide high-altitude balloons promised to improve coverage while curbing cost came as Loon hit headwinds in some locales where it has been testing the technology.

“Out timelines are starting to move up on how we can do more for the world sooner,” said Astro Teller, who heads the team at the Alphabet unit X, in charge of “moonshot” projects of the technology giant.

“We are looking to move quickly, but to move thoughtfully,” Teller told a small group of reporters inside a former Silicon Valley shopping centre transformed into a “moonshot factory.”

The acceleration was credited to software leaps that allow Internet-serving balloons to ride high-altitude winds to ideal locations or loop in patterns that create consistent webs of Internet coverage in the sky.

“We’ve been working to make the balloons smarter; almost like a game of chess with the winds,” Teller said.

He expected Loon to be partnering in coming months with telecom companies to provide Internet to “real users,” in a step up from tests done to see how well the high-floating technology works with networks on the ground.

Teller declined to specify where Loon might first be integrated into telecommunications networks providing service to customers.

“We are not going to all of a sudden be everywhere,” Teller said.

“We intend to be part of an ecosystem – in any country where we are doing testing we would work with a local telco.”

Part of the money-making vision for Loon would be to get revenue from telecom operators for extending their reach.

Teller said Loon is one of the more mature projects at X and that it “would be a natural state to graduate into its own company” but there were no plans at the moment for that to happen.

Grounded in Sri Lanka?
The peek inside X lab and word of speedy progress came the same day that the venture to beam the Internet to the ground via balloon hit a legal snag in Sri Lanka that could see the project abandoned on the island.

Project Loon uses roaming balloons to beam Internet coverage and planned to connect Sri Lanka’s 21 million people to the web, even those in remote connectivity black spots.

But just a year after testing began in Sri Lanka regulators have been unable to allocate Google a radio frequency for the airborne venture without breaching international regulations.

“There are lots of places excited to run experiments with us,” Teller said.

“We encourage that, but there are lots of agencies and we need to dot ‘I’s and cross ‘t’s.”

He added that Loon planned to “do things by the book” in any country where it is active, using balloons to get Internet signals far and wide, while local telecom companies tap into the network from the ground.

The first public launch of Loon took place in New Zealand in 2013, when the project was in an early experimental phase.

Alphabet recently told AFP that it gave up on its Internet drone project, called Titan, about a year ago, to focus its resources on Loon where it saw more promise of success.

The economics and technical feasibility of balloons are seen as a more promising way to connect rural and remote parts of the world to the Internet, according to X.

Leading online social network Facebook is continuing to develop an Aquila drone for beaming Internet connection from the sky.

[Source:- gadgets.ndtv]

April 5, 2024 0 comment

Internet

Google Parent Alphabet Shutters Titan Internet-Delivering Drone Project

by Rajdeep April 5, 2024

written by Rajdeep

Google Parent Alphabet Shutters Titan Internet-Delivering Drone Project

Google parent company Alphabet on Wednesday confirmed that it is opting for balloons instead of drones in its quest to deliver Internet service from the sky.

Alphabet, which not only owns Google but also Google X, which is devoted to creating world-changing new technologies, told AFP that it gave up on its Internet drone project, called Titan, about a year ago.

Its staff moved elsewhere at X, including a project called Loon focused on creating a network of high-altitude balloons that would provide internet service to people on the ground no matter how remote.

Some people from the team also shifted to Project Wing, which is creating delivery drones, according to an X division spokesperson.

“The team from Titan was brought into X in late 2015,” the spokesperson said in an email to AFP.

“We ended our exploration of high altitude UAVs (unmanned aerial vehicles) for Internet access shortly after.”

The economics and technical feasibility of balloons are seen as a more promising way to connect rural and remote parts of the world to the internet, according to X.

Leading online social network Facebook is continuing to develop an Aquila drone for beaming Internet connection from the sky.

[Source:- gadgets.ndtv]

April 5, 2024 0 comment

Internet

Microsoft Partners Intel for Project Evo; Outlines Hardware Plans to Complete With Amazon Echo, Google Home

by Rajdeep April 4, 2024

written by Rajdeep

Microsoft Partners Intel for Project Evo; Outlines Hardware Plans to Complete With Amazon Echo, Google Home

Microsoft is reportedly working on a “Home Hub” feature for Windows 10 to allow users to perform various functions using voice commands. This feature is positioned to rival devices like Amazon Echoand Google Home. In the meanwhile, Microsoft has partnered with Intel for ‘Project Evo’, what appears to be a move to lay the hardware groundwork for this feature and allow device makers to incorporate Home Hub in a tablet laptop, or even a PC.

In a blog post, Terry Myerson, Executive Vice President of the Windows and Devices Group at Microsoft, detailed the areas the companies would be working together on. These include far-field speech communications (allowing users to use Cortana across the room), security capabilities to protect devices from malware and hacking threats (including biometric authentication), mixed reality experiences, and gaming innovations.

Microsoft looks to give the device makers the freedom to incorporate the latest artificial intelligence with Cortana in the hardware that they desire. “Customers are device creators. There’s a lot of enthusiasm for wake on voice, devices with far-field voice capabilities, devices with small screens, large screens, and no screens at all,” explained Myerson, in an interview with The Verge.

Microsoft doesn’t intend to make a hardware product similar to the Amazon Echo or Google Home, but just provide its device partners with the software ability to compete with them. This Home Hub feature should be able to listen to voice-based commands and perform tasks, support wake on voice and far-field speech communications, just like Amazon and Google’s AI assistants. This smart speaker’s feature will work on PCs, 2-in-1s, all-in-ones, and even tablets.

“From a platform perspective, our goal is to build this platform that provides a set of silicon options for these device creators, that allows them to choose the screen sizes they’re choosing, and allows them to decide whether they want touch or not, support pen or not. So they can pursue their own vision of what the ideal device is,” Myerson told the publication.

The Home Hub feature is not expected to launch before late next year. It is supposed to extend to Android and iOS devices as well, via the Cortana app. Microsoft is reportedly already in talks with hardware partners like Lenovo and HP to product Home Hub specific hardware. The new hardware that’s fully compatible with Home Hub may include light and motion sensors as well, that switches off the device when no-one is in the room.

Finally, in what definitely seems like a step towards Home Hub, the latest Insider Preview build of Windows 10 (build 14986) brings ability to use Cortana to switch off your PC via voice commands. The Verge reports that Cortana can also be used to put the PC to sleep, or restart it, apart from locking the PC, and changing system volume. The update let Cortana change tracks in some music streaming services like iHeartRadio and TuneInRadio, when the PC is locked. Two other Cortana based features are the ability to ask which song is playing, and bring up a view optimised for distance viewing if users say “Hey Cortana” when the PC is idle for more than 10 seconds.

[Source:- gadgets.ndtv]

April 4, 2024 0 comment

Internet

Google Asks for Airspace Access for Project Loon Internet Balloons

by Rajdeep April 4, 2024

written by Rajdeep

Google Asks for Airspace Access for Project Loon Internet Balloons

Google, which is hoping to beam the internet to remote areas of the world via balloon, went before the UN’s aviation agency to ask member states to let it ply their airspace.

The company’s X Lab, which was created to pursue big-vision projects, said it hopes to establish a network of helium balloons floating in the stratosphere that will emit a powerful 4G signal to rural and difficult-to-access areas.

The new initiative – launched in 2013 and dubbed “Project Loon” – saw its first balloon take off from South America in February only to crash at a tea plantation in Sri Lanka, where it was discovered by villagers.

Alphabet, the parent company of Google, had partnered with Sri Lanka to bring the internet to remote areas there. The country’s Information and Communication Technology Agency, which coordinated the tests with Google, described the landing as controlled and scheduled.

Loon has “significantly improved the balloon design, manufacture and launch procedure,” X Lab told the UN’s International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) Wednesday, according to a document seen by AFP.

“The balloons are now robust, remaining aloft well beyond the targeted 100 days, and are launched through a custom developed auto-launcher, allowing rapid multiple launches,” X Lab told the organization’s executive committee.

After compiling publicly available wind data with its own flight data, Project Loon was able to model the stratosphere’s air flow, allowing its balloons to “change altitude to ‘catch’ the winds moving at the speed and direction necessary to a given service area,” the document said.

Alphabet requested the assistance of ICAO member states as they met for its 39th triennial assembly, asking them in particular to “establish bilateral or multilateral letters of agreement with adjacent states and Project Loon to allow Loon balloons to safely transit flight information region boundaries.”

“Safety and coordination with the international civil aviation community is very important to Project Loon,” a X Lab spokeswoman told AFP.

Loon is currently working to finalise a safety plan and set up its operations center.

In July, leading social network Facebook launched a similar attempt to bring internet access to remote areas via solar drones.

[Source:- gadgets.ndtv]

April 4, 2024 0 comment

Internet

Centre Asks States to Follow Andhra Pradesh for BharatNet Project

by Rajdeep April 4, 2024

written by Rajdeep

Centre Asks States to Follow Andhra Pradesh for BharatNet Project

The Centre has asked states to follow the Andhra Pradesh model in laying optic fibre cable lines over electric poles to complete the BharatNet project, touted as the ‘backbone forDigital India’, by December 2018.

BharatNet, called the National Optical Fibre Network, is aimed at providing 100 Mbps broadband connectivity to more than 2.50 lakh gram panchayats across the country.

The progress of the BharatNet project implementation has been slow due to a variety of reasons, including the “inability of Bharat Broadband Network Limited” to procure optical network termination equipment in time as well as “major gaps in the implementation strategy”, Union Secretary for Information Technology and Communications J S Deepak said.

On April 30, the Telecom Commission approved a revised strategy for a three-phase implementation of the BharatNet project.

The first phase envisages providing one lakh gram panchayats with broadband connectivity by laying underground OFC lines by March 2017, Deepak said in a letter to Chief Secretaries of all states last week.

“The second phase will provide connectivity to all 2,50,500 gram panchayats in the country using an optimal mix of underground fibre, fibre over power lines, radio and satellite media. It is to be completed by December 2018,” the Union Secretary said.

“For success in phase-2, which will also involve laying of OFC over electricity poles, the participation of states will be important. This is a new element of the BharatNet strategy as the mode of connectivity by aerial OFC has several advantages, including lower cost, speedier implementation, easy maintenance and utilisation of existing power line infrastructure,” he pointed out.

Further, in phase-2, the last mile connectivity to citizens was proposed to be provided creating Wi-Fi hotspots in gram panchayats, he said.

In the third phase from 2018 to 2023, state-of-the-art, future-proof network, including fibre between districts and blocks, with ring topology to provide redundancy would be created, Deepak elaborated.

In laying aerial OFC, the states and power distribution companies have a critical role, which would include digital mapping of the locations of substations and electrical poles from Blocks down to GPs.

Andhra Pradesh has followed an innovative approach in using technology for mapping lines using resources of MGNREG scheme and those of the power department, he said.

“The most remarkable feature of Andhra Pradesh mapping has been that the entire state-wide mapping was accomplished in a week. After the mapping, the state has laid about 10,000-km of aerial OFC on electrical poles in a time of three months,” Deepak said.

“As connectivity in BharatNet phase-2 is planned partly through aerial OFC and since each state has robust power infrastructure up to the gram panchayat level, this could be used for laying of aerial OFC cable on top of electricity poles. However, the first step in this is mapping of electricity lines, from block down to gram panchayats, urgently.

“States are, hence, encouraged to follow the procedure adopted by Andhra Pradesh,” the Union Secretary told the Chief Secretaries in the letter.

Digital mapping of power lines would be a useful tool that could be used for other applications, including installation of smart meters in rural areas in future, he said.

The Department of Telecom would provide funds for GIS mapping of power lines from block to gram panchayats and the quantum would depend on the size of the state, he said.

BharatNet, launched in 2013, is being implemented by the Department of Telecom. It is funded by the Universal Service Obligation Fund (USOF).

The project executing agency Bharat Broadband Network Limited is implementing it through three Central Public Sector Enterprises BSNL, Power Grid and RailTel.

April 4, 2024 0 comment

Education

USF RESEARCHERS PARTNER WITH NONPROFITS CODEVA, TERC ON NSF-FUNDED PROJECT TO BRING COMPUTER SCIENCE INTO VIRGINIA’S MIDDLE SCHOOL HISTORY CLASSROOMS

by Loknath Das July 23, 2022

written by Loknath Das

Teacher with students in a classroom on laptops

University of South Florida (USF) professor Michael J. Berson, PhD, is partnering with Virginia-based nonprofit CodeVA and math-science nonprofit TERC on a multi-year research project to broaden middle school students’ participation in meaningful and culturally relevant computer science instruction during their history classes.

The project, “An Interdisciplinary Approach to Supporting Computer Science in Rural Schools,” will develop a computer science program for teaching history to underserved middle school students in the state of Virginia. The project is supported by a four-year, $2.99 million grant funded by the National Science Foundation’s (NSF) Discovery Research PreK-12 (DRK-12) program, and was developed as part of a national push to increase computer science K-12 literacy and participation in computer science-related fields and industries among underrepresented and minoritized student populations.

Michael J. Berson, a Professor of Social Science Education, will serve as co-principal investigator for the project. He and Ilene R. Berson, a Professor of Early Childhood Education who will also contribute to the project, have collaborated on groundbreaking international research in digital citizenship and cybersecurity for students that has informed global policy and practice.

“We have an opportunity to build upon our ongoing research with young children that has informed our instructional approaches to foster transversal competencies with tangible coding technologies,” Michael J. Berson said. “A project-based approach to geohistorical teaching and learning can provide a range of opportunities for students to investigate and apply computational thinking and problem-solving skills within the context of projects that are of ‘real world’ interest.”

The research project aims to broaden access to meaningful computer science instruction for students in rural areas across Virginia by using techniques such as modeling and simulation to allow students to explore historical events from multiple lenses and by providing sustainable training and resources on culturally relevant teaching techniques to support history teachers statewide.

The project will be conducted in collaboration with TERC, an independent research-based nonprofit organization focused on science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education, and CodeVA, a nonprofit that partners with schools, parents, and communities to bring equitable computer science education to all of Virginia’s students. CodeVA’s state-funded training programs have served approximately 3500 teachers since 2014 and focus heavily on building schools’ capacity to provide basic training to their faculty, enabling them to meet Virginia’s computer science education mandate.

“This exciting project supports a more inclusive understanding of history by allowing students to explore and bring to life key concepts using CS and computational tools,” said Bryan Wallace, CodeVA’s education community manager and principal investigator for the project.

[“source=usf”]

July 23, 2022 0 comment