Asianet (Kerala) Plans data-over-cable system
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ER&DCI, Asianet plan data-over-cable system
Vinson Kurian (The Hindu)
THIRUVANANTHAPURAM, Oct. 7
THE Electronics Research and Development Centre of India (ER&DCI), a scientific society under the Department of Electronics (DoE), has agreed to provide technical services to Asianet Satellite Communications Ltd, which owns the popular Malayalam satellite channel of the same name, to enable the latter set up a "data-over-cable-system" in Thiruvananthapuram.
A memorandum of understanding to this effect has been signed by the concerned parties, according to Mr. N. Krishnan, Additional Director, ER&DCI.
The R&D institute would help Asianet set up various services such as Internet, intranet, e-mail, local Web hosting and call centres, Mr. Krishnan told Business Line here. The project aims to connect some of the corporate houses in Thiruvananthapuram through cable network and offer highly-reliable data services at "very competitive" rates.
A leading non-banking financial company with multiple branches in the city has already expressed interest in the technology. Various R&D organisations, schools, libraries and colleges are likely candidates to get wired in this manner. ER&DCI is toying with the idea, subject to the approval of the State Government, of putting up a proposal to the DoE for funds for connecting various such organisations in the city.
Since the Asianet cable network runs piggyback on the electricity poles belonging to the Kerala State Electricity Board (KSEB), one immediate application that could be tried is the online monitoring of the transformers. Data can be collected from these transformers and put on the cablenet so that the same can be accessed to assess the performance of transformers on a real time basis from anywhere on the network.
The Asianet management is keen to promote the project and has begun work in this direction. Since the commissioning of the entire system is expected to take up sometime, ER&DCI will soon be launching a series of pilot projects with a view to creating public awareness on the beneficial aspects of the project.
It is already talking to the State Information Technology Department to know if it would be interested in making use of its networking expertise for implementing IT in governance. The response has been encouraging and it is up to ER&DCI to go to the State Government with a formal proposal and demonstrate the system that it intends to put up, according to Mr. Krishnan.
ER&DCI is also examining the possibility of using the rugged IBM S390 mainframe system installed in-house as a server for the networking project. It also intends to set up a data centre for the benefit of Government organisations. |
