High-speed Net comes to a deep jungle

Long-distance Wi-Fi brings facility to tribal hamlets in Nilambur

Children of Palakkayam tribal colony in the Nilambur forest in Chaliyar grama panchayat celebrating the arrival of high-speed internet.

The Jan Shikshan Sansthan (JSS), a Union government initiative for skill development in rural areas, has brought high-speed internet to some of the remotest tribal hamlets deep inside the Nilambur jungle.

For the first time, the Palakkayam, Vettilakkolli and Ambumala tribal hamlets got high-speed internet, thanks to long-distance Wi-Fi technology. Kerala Infrastructure and Technology for Education (KITE) executive director Anwar Sadath, who visited the hamlets on Saturday, was jubilant about the 100-mbps internet.

The JSS’s technical partner C4S provided support for the long-distance Wi-Fi on 5GHz frequency. With the help of five towers, 100-mbps internet is made available at Palakkayam, Ambumala, and Vettilakkolli hamlets in Chaliyar grama panchayat.

No transmission loss

“In this technology, there is no loss of transmission. We have set up the servers in such a way as to help a minimum of 250 users use the Net concurrently. And this can be easily boosted,” said C4S director V.J. Thomas.

He said that using long-distance Wi-Fi technology, high-speed internet could be provided even up to 100 km without any transmission loss.

While the National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD) provided ₹5 lakh, the JSS chipped in ₹2.02 lakh. “The biggest advantage of this technology is its low cost,” said V. Ummer Koya, JSS director.

Strict monitoring

The JSS will monitor the use of the internet through its own technology. “We have to have strict monitoring, especially since the area has Maoist threat. The use of internet will be restricted strictly to the hamlets’ residents,” said Mr. Ummer Koya.

The base station has been set up at Indira Gandhi Memorial Residential Government School, Nilambur. From there, the internet provided by BSNL and Railnet will be transmitted to the tribal hamlets inside the jungle using long-distance Wi-Fi. Battery backup has also been arranged by utilising solar energy.

With authorities

P.V. Abdul Wahab, MP and chairman of the JSS, visited the hamlets along with District Collector K. Gopalakrishnan last week. Mr. Wahab said the technology could be utilised effectively for online interaction with the authorities, including the Collector. The three hamlets were covered in the first phase, and the facility would be extended to more tribal colonies in other parts of the forest, Mr. Wahab added.