Indian Railways to provide internet service in Kerala

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Indian Railways is set to join the bandwagon of internet providers in Kerala with a special provision for those browsing education sites.

The Railways is providing broadband internet connection in the state through the Railtel Corporation of India Ltd. The biggest incentive for those taking the net service of Indian Railways is that they can download education material free.

A Seshagiri Rao, executive director (southern region) of Railtel, said Railtel would provide the service through cable operators who have connectivity across the state.

"The internet service would become operational in the next two to three months," said Rao, who was in the city.

Railtel, which manages the communication sector of Indian Railways, has laid more than 38,000 km of optical fibre cable across the country, which would be the backbone for providing broadband connectivity in the state.

"Our network is such that every railway station in the country can be turned into a source for education centres. But we have decided to provide broadband connectivity to the people through cable operators. The biggest advantage for those using our connectivity is that they would get unlimited download in matters regarding education," said Rao.

Towards this, Railtel has finalized a tie-up with the seven Indian Institutes of Technology (IIT) and the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) in Bangalore where they have ready more than 6,000 hours of lectures by the faculty.

"The biggest advantage of Indian Railways internet is that downloading of education material will be at a speed ranging from 2 mpbs to 30 mpbs," added Rao.

Source : EconomicTimes

Longest broadband terrestrial education grid launched

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Panchayati Raj Minister Mani Shankar Aiyar inaugurated the country's longest broadband terrestrial education grid connecting the Indian Institute of Information Technology and Management (IIITM-Kerala) and Nagaland University here on Saturday.

Nagaland Education Minister Shürhozelie appeared on the screen along with a Christian priest offering prayers as Aiyar switched on the button of the grid in the presence of Nagaland Chief Minister Neiphiu Rio and Kerala Education Minister M.A. Baby at the IIITM-K campus, Technopark.

Earlier, talking to reporters, vice-chancellor of Nagaland University, K. Kannan said, ''This is the first phase and students of the School of Engineering and Technology in Nagaland would be able to listen live and recorded lectures from the IIITM-K campus."

The transmission of lectures through 3800- km long link of the RailTel Corporation of India was successfully held in the trial run that started early this month.

"A new optical fibre link has been laid from the Thiruvananthapuram railway stations to our campus and a similar one has been laid from the Dimapur railway station to the campus of the Engineering college in Nagaland," said K.R.Srivathsan, director of IIITM-K.

The project was completed with the help of teachers of various IITs and Indian Institute of Science-Bangalore.

''Lectures on five engineering disciplines, including civil, mechanical, electronics, electrical and computer science would be available for the students of the engineering college in Nagaland through the link. Apart from this, there would be live lectures broadcast from the IITM-K campus here to the students there," said Mangala Sunder Krishnan, professor at the IIT Madras.

In the second phase of this connectivity, using the same link, several premier institutions and universities of the country would be connected to Nagaland to enhance education programmes at all levels, Kannan added.

Source : EconomicTimes