(18 July 2009 3:30 pm)

MUMBAI: Zylog Systems India Limited (ZSIL) has chosen Aptilo Networks to provide the back-end systems, enabling its Wi5 wireless broadband offering throughout the country.

Zylog's Wi5 service is now live in parts of Chennai, which will soon become the first Wi-Fi-enabled city in India. Bangalore, Delhi, Mumbai and Hyderabad will be added in the next year covering approximately 1,600 km and hundreds of thousands of users.

ZSIL has obtained a category 'A' Internet service provider licence to operate in all of India's DoT circles, and is planning to blanket a total of 40 cities in India with a footprint of more than 12,000 km and millions of subscribers within the next five years.

Broadband Internet penetration in India, the second most populous country in the world, is very low at 0.5 per cent, with a base of six million broadband subscribers in the beginning of 2009. There is a vast segment of population that does not have access to broadband primarily due to availability and prohibitive costs. The Wi5 wireless broadband service will aim to empower the population with convenient, high-speed and affordable broadband Internet, ushering in a new era of connectivity for India.

The Aptilo Service Management Platform and multiple Aptilo Access Controller access gateways are handling Subscriber Management; authentication, authorisation and accounting (AAA); policy management; QoS and more. Aptilo has brought in partners Informatics International Limited (AvaBill) for delivering systems for operational support as well as pre-paid/post-paid billing, and Nexge for delivering VoIP services.