LiFi technology also known as Light Fidelity provided by Ahmedabad-based NAV Wireless Technologies Pvt Ltd has been providing the internet broadband needs of Border Security Force (BSF) and tourists at Nadabet, Gujarat’s most remote and secluded point on the India-Pakistan border.
Nadabet is not only an important BSF base, but Gujarat government has been trying to promote this India-Pakistan border for tourists.
“Nadabet is located on the border and it is connected by a small road to Suigam (in Banaskantha district) located 30 kilometres away. The saline ecosystem does not allow laying or underground or overhead optic fibre cables. Radio frequencies cannot be used as it is near Pakistan. So state government was facing an issue in providing Internet connectivity to Nadabet which is now being developed as a tourist location,” said Hardik Soni, co-founder of the company.
LiFi technology uses light beams within visible and invisible spectrum to transmit data over several kilometers.
Being a wireless technology, it is bidirectional and can transmit data at high speeds.
“Since last nine months, internet provided by this technology is being used by soldiers of BSF and tourists alike. Around 15,000 people visit Nadabet every month and they are able to use the high-speed internet. This is the first big project taken up by the state and central governments to deploy LiFi technology at a spot having difficult terrain and security concerns,” Soni said during an interaction with media persons at his office. Suigam being a gram panchayat is connected by a optic fibre cable.
“We have connected the optic fibre cable in Suigam to our LiFi devices in Suigam and Nadabet to provide high bandwidth Internet. There are multiple users and 100 MBPS (megabits per second) will not be sufficient. So this technology provides speeds in gigabytes ,” the official said adding that the telecom infrastructure of BSNL and Gujarat Informatics Ltd is also been used to provide this service.
“We are not the telecom or internet service provider. We only handle the technology and the equipment,” he added.