Rural India to soon get Internet-on-bus

AFP Paris, June 05
People in rural India will soon be able to access the Internet when a bus passes near their home, New Scientist reports in next Saturday's issue.

Buses are being fitted out with a 100-dollar wireless transceiver -- based on the "wi-fi" broadband networks used by laptops -- which is hooked up to an Internet Service Provider by radio.

The next step is to modify software on village computers so that they automatically switch to "connected" mode whenever a passing bus is within range.

The PostNet project, a joint venture between the Indian government and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), initially aims to give farmers access to agricultural news and weather forecasts at least twice a day, the British weekly says.

I get this strange feeling that buses will be halted at villages while the farmers all gather round the computers and log into JenniCam

lol , mike and that was a new one , internet on buses indeed.

well in baramat in western maharashtra and in some parts of andhra..new cordect technology has given phonelines which allow internet acccess and a normal voicephone connection simulataneously with only one connection.

What are the chances that the power will be on and a bus will be in range at the same time?

Sounds a bit far fetched to me, is this someones idea for a new dotcom?
Most buses in rural India have enough trouble trying to keep a cassette player working, let alone the headlights. But to keep something like this running?

How many farmers in India have a computer, let alone access?

It would be easier (and cheaper) to sell newspapers from the bus.

I wouldn't want to deny a villager access to the fun and interaction of the Internet simply because they live in a village, but this idea is quite daft. It sounds like something dreamed up by an MIT geek with a romanticised picture of a craggy farmer silhouetted against the sunset as his mental model.

What's wrong with using a battery-powered radio for delivering "agricultural news and weather forecasts"? It seems a wholly inappropriate technological fix to such a problem.

Another suspicion I have is that it is the "thin end of the wedge" by biotech companies to get Indian farmers to use genetically-modified seeds, something they have very intelligently resisted up to now. But feed them the techno-babble on a Flash-zappy website and they'll be softer targets, perhaps.

Internet is being used by villagers to buy and sell their commodities and access prices for world markets.

they use email and yes, the computer is used to type out resume's and apply for jobs. near pondicherry , a dedicated five year project is trying to make the internet useful to villagers.

Yes, Internet is not used in villages to chat , see LPTT or Indiamke.

But more and more applications are being developed. Buses bringing access - vow , cute , great idea.