S Kailasanathan, managing director, Microsense

What has been the response from your customers to the Wi-Fi service?
For obvious reasons, response from customers in the premium hotels and airports has been good. In the lower class of hotels, laptop carriers are fewer in number, but as the number of laptops grows, usage in such hotels is expected to grow. Usage in coffee shops has also been satisfactory.

What are the challenges faced by the service providers and equipment vendors?
The main challenge faced by Wi-Fi service providers (WISPs) is to bring about a lifestyle change. Laptop owners will need to feel that Wi-Fi access is the best way for them to access the Internet as they move around the city or travel to other cities. As the number of hotspots increases, customers realize that wherever they are there is a Wi-Fi hotspot close to them, usage will grow.

Do you think vendors have been able to address the issue of security in Wi-Fi?
Security in Wi-Fi is sufficiently addressed in the infrastructure by Microsense. Corporate users login day in and day out at our hotspots for accessing VPN, including multiple users making simultaneous connections to the same corporate VPN server. This is a feature tested and verifed by the Intel Wireless Verification Program. Intel has verfied our hotspots to be in conformance to their standards.

Even noncorporate users, who do not use VPN, can have secure connectivity but this is a matter of not only the infrastructure at the hotspots, but also settings in their laptop. A program of educating the users is required as we go forward.