Bangalore, Oct 26: Notwithstanding the delay in its implementation, Bangalore will be the first city in the country to be fully WiMax-enabled, offering wireless broadband service covering 743 square km of the city by the year-end.

Disclosing this at the curtain raiser press conference for the upcoming IT mega event 'BangaloreIT.in-2007', Karnataka IT and BT Secretary M N Vidyashankar said 70 per cent of the fixed base stations had been set up after the Government identified the bidder.

Six leading WiMax companies had placed their bids for the Rs 450 crore project.

The project had been delayed for nearly an year as the Government had declared that the city would be WiMax-enabled last year. However, the official clarified that the city limits were widened recently, causing the delay.

The tariff would be driven by demand like telecom service, he said, hoping that the WiMax charges would also come down like it had happened in cell phone telephony.

A pilot project, developed by a different company, would be operational in a part of the city from Kasturba Road to Trinity Circle.

In its bid to improve the employability of youth and make them IT-savvy, the State Government would launch a computer skills proficiency test in association with Merit Trac, India's largest skills assessment company.

The tests would assess school going students in keyboard skills and PC skills like Windows functions, MS word, MS Excel and Email proficiency.

The test would be for candidates outside Bangalore to empower semi-urban and rural-based students in Mysore, Mangalore, Hubli, Gulbarga and Belgaum districts. Later, it would be extended to the entire State.

This would help the IT and BPO industry to span out to tier-II cities, he said.



UNI