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Update on May 1, 2006:
Project details | Appeal for donations | How to donate | Donors list | How we recognize donors

Update on July 5, 2006: The vendor has issued the purchase order for the equipment and it will be arriving at ITBHU shortly. The planned completion date is July 28th. Please donate graciously to help finish this project in time. Current donation statistics can be found here.

Update on Apr 30, 2005: Download the RFP here. This is a new RFP in view of the fact that we do not need to inter-connect the hostels since the inter-connection and internet access has already been provided by BHU.

Overview:

This is the biggest project which is being conceived by the alumni organization.  The aim of this project is to create a network in the hostels which meets the current needs of the students as well has the necessary components to handle future requirements. Currently the cheapest desktops in India come at a price of around Rs 23,000 ( roughly $ 500/-) and the cheapest laptops come at a cost of around Rs 38,000 (roughly $ 830/-). We are sure that the laptop prices will come down further and in future the faculty as well as students would start using laptops.

Project Goals

• To provide Wifi – 802.11g access with Internet Connectivity to the ITBHU hostels.  We are initially shooting for the internet connectivity provided by BHU via the fiber optic backbone to be shared by the 10 hostels. Each hostel has a drop-off point on the backbone which will be connected to our Wifi access points.

•  Allow students to browse the net etc. from the comfort of their dorm/hostel rooms.

Brief approach:

• Provide wireless access points in this network so that students can use there computers anywhere they want in and around their hostels

• Extend the wireless network to places usually frequented by the students eg. IT Gymkhana, Limbdi Corner etc.
  

• [Done by BHU] Provide internet connectivity to these places by tying up with an ISP.
  

    Detailed network design is yet to be done.

Situational Analysis: 

•  Upside: The current upside with this project is immense. During my trip to the ITBHU campus (Mid Sept) the students that I polled have been waiting for this with bated breath and have given up on when the institute will provide this connectivity.  On hearing about this initiative, the students felt that if the Alumni took this initiative seriously, they would see the internet in the hostels sooner than later. We already have a group of enthusiastic students at the institute who are willing to coordinate these activities.

• Downside: Obviously dealing with multiple volunteers and theri inertia would be the biggest challenge for a project like this.

• Champions: The good news is that we have champions inside of ITBHU.  Dr. RamchandraRao who is the Vice Chancellor, Dr. Lele the Director and a somewhat unrelated but very enthusiastic Smita Chaudhari who is the Chief Financial Officer for BHU.  When I met with Dr. Rao, Dr. Lele and Ms. Chaudhari, we had a very enthusiastic reception and they all committed their support in whatever manner possible. [Update] Dr. S.N.Upadhyay, the new director has been very supportive in this effort and has pledged full support.

What still needs to be done:

Here are the steps left in the project along with  current milestones.

• Get rough budget:  We have select AirTel to execute this project. The total budget of this project is approximately Rs. 22 lacs

•  Raise money: We now have to raise the money needed for the infrastructure contract, but also for the maintenance and support fees for one year.

•  Implement Project:  We currently need to send an advance of Rs. 6.5 lacs to AirTel to get the project started. We have collected Rs. 2.5 lacs to date and need the balance raised ASAP to get the project kicked-off and implemented.

What we need from the Alumni:

• WE NEED YOU TO CONTRIBUTE GENEROUSLY.  WE NEED YOUR HELP!

Status:

This section will be used to give project status to Alumni.
The timeline below is as of Apr 30, 2005.

S.No	Milestone	Target Date	Completed On	Present Status	Accountable Person	Remarks
1	Get BHU Administrative buy-in	Feb 10, 2005	May 5, 2005	Completed
2	Budgetrary Estimate	Aug 1, 2005		Completed. Earlier remarks: Waiting on information from Krishna Singh of Tulipit.com, SP Shukla of Reliance Infocom, Sanjay Nikore of HCL-Comnet	Ujj Nath	Pramod Joshi is also coordinating with Sanjay Nikore who is the COO of HCL - Comnet and Ujj and Anshuman Singh are coordinating with SP Shukla who runs Reliance Infocom
3	Constitute RFP committee	May 15, 2005	May 28, 2005	Completed	Animesh Pathak/Anshuman Singh
4	Select Vendors	June 15, 2005	June 23, 2005	Completed	RFP Committee
5	Write RFP	June 20, 2005	June 20, 2005	Completed	Ujj Nath / Animesh Pathak
6	Send RFPs	July 1, 2005		Completed	Arvind Gupta	RFP available for download
7	Letter of Intent to Submit Proposal Due	July 6, 2005		Completed
8	Distribute revised RFP (Internet connectivity is now available to the hostels)	Sep 3, 2005		Completed	Ujj Nath/Arvind Gupta	Download the RFP here
9	Vendor Q&A submission	Sep 16, 2005		Completed	Arvind Gupta/Ujj Nath
10	Bidder Q&A Session	Sep 20, 2005	Dec 29, 2005	Completed	Arvind Gupta/Ujj Nath
11	Bidders submit proposal	Sep 26, 2005	Jan 25, 2006	Completed	Arvind Gupta
12	Review, evaluation and selection of finalist proposals	Oct 3, 2005	Mar 29, 2006	Completed	RFP Committee	Proposals have been evaluated and next step will happen sometime in Apr/May '06 when Ujj Nath [Met 79] (Project Lead for this project) will be in India
13	Sign Contract	Oct 15, 2005		Completed	Ujj Nath / Arvind Gupta	The RFP Committee has ratified the proposal. Fund raising to kick start in Apr '06
14	Fund Raising	June 15, 2006		Going on	Local Coordinators: List to be made available soon	Please email fundraisers at ITBHU.org for queries
15	Internal process clearances for Hardware order	June 24, 2006	June 24, 2006	Done	Vendor
16	PR to material for H/W delivery	June 28, 2006	June 28, 2006	Done	Vendor
17	Issue of Purchase Order to Principal for Hardware delivery	July 1, 2006	July 1, 2006	Done	Vendor
18	Materials delivery at site(ITBHU Campus)	July 20, 2006			Vendor
19	Installation and commissioning of equipments, mast erection,etc.	July 26, 2006			Vendor
20	Testing of nodes, WLAN,etc.	July 27, 2006			Vendor
21	Acceptance / LoC Sign Off	July 28, 2006			Vendor, Ujj Nath and Arvind Gupta