Telecommunications and Networks - Principles of Information Systems - page 247

ETHICAL AND
SOCIETAL ISSUES

Bangalore Clears Congestion with Telecommuni-
cations
Bangalore is India's third most populous city and the hub of the
country's information services industry; in fact, Bangalore is
known as the Silicon Valley of India. Bangalore is host to many
United States companies that outsource portions of their work-
load. The crowded and congested Bangalore area is growing in
population at exponential rates. The economy is booming as well.
With many people moving to Bangalore, and with many residents
able to afford a car for the first time, it is estimated that 700 new
vehicles are being added to Bangalore's crowded streets every
day. Due to a chaotic traffic management system, the traffic in
many areas of Bangalore grinds to a halt for hours each day.
Recently, the commissioner of police and traffic in Bangalore
partnered with Indian cell phone giant Bharti Airtel and the geo-
graphic information systems company Mapunity to harness the
power of telecommunications and apply it to Bangalore's traffic
problems. The collaboration benefitted all partners.
Bharti Airtel, or Airtel for short, is India's largest global
system for mobile communications (GSM) cell phone carrier with
62 million subscribers. Airtel was experiencing a high rate of
dropped calls in areas of Bangalore where traffic congestion was
the most dense. Customers were not happy. Imagine being stuck
in traffic for hours with no cell phone service. To resolve the prob-
lem, Airtel constructed small cell towers to service only the areas
of highway where traffic was the worst. The investment paid off.
Hardly any calls were dropped during peak rush hour.
Bangalore's police and traffic commissioner, M.N. Reddi, had
a brilliant idea. He asked Airtel to provide his agency with stream-
ing information on how many cell phones were connected to the
network along Bangalore highways. Airtel could easily provide this
information because of its recently installed mini towers. Reddi
discovered that the number of cell phones in a given area was a
perfect indicator of the number of cars on the highway and the
level of traffic congestion.
Reddi contacted Mapunity, which uses Google Maps and geo-
graphic information systems software from the N.S. Raghavan
Center for Entrepreneurial Learning (NSRCEL), to build a system
that employs cell phone usage data to inform police and com-
muters of traffic conditions in real time. The system, called

Bangalore Transport Information System (BTIS), can be accessed
on the Web at www.btis.in or through cell phone text messaging.
Having a finger on the pulse of Bangalore traffic has allowed
BTIS to offer several services to commuters. At the Web site, com-
muters can view traffic patterns on a map and plan their commute
to follow the least congested roads. A commuter can also provide
the site with a starting point and destination and allow the software
to suggest the fastest route—one that is most direct and also least
congested. The Web site also provides a tool to arrange for car-
pooling. Cell phone users can send a text message to the system
using different codes for different areas and receive a message
outlining heavy traffic areas to avoid. Reddi is also installing plasma
screens in the lobbies of Bangalore hotels and large displays in
technology parks that show commuters areas to avoid as they take
off on the road.
After two weeks of operation, the free service was getting
around 4,000 text message requests and 2,000 people visiting the
site each day—numbers that are growing by five percent daily. The
system is being expanded to serve other cities in India.

Discussion Questions
1. What people, companies, and organizations were affected

by the traffic congestion in Bangalore? In what way?

2. What telecommunications technologies are used by the

BTIS?

Critical Thinking Questions
1. How did the solution provided by the partnership between

the Bangalore traffic commissioner and Airtel save the
city and the company money? Consider the cost of a solu-
tion had these two entities not become partners.

2. What privacy issues does Airtel raise by providing cus-

tomer usage data to the Bangalore police? How can these
issues be addressed?

Sources: Goswami, Kanika, “Traffic Problem Finds Cell Phone Solution,”
Computerworld, August 30, 2007, www.computerworld.com/action/
article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&articleId=9033738&pageNumber=1;
BangaloreTransport Information System, www.btis.in, accessed April 26,
2008; Airtel Web site, www.airtel.in, accessed April 26, 2008; Mapunity Web
site, www.mapunity.com, accessed April 26, 2008.

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