India’s millennium city, Gurgaon neighbours Delhi, but does not get all the benefits the residents of Delhi get. The capital got free WiFi last year at Connaught Place and will be expanding soon to other areas.
On Monday, 11th July, Manohar Lal Khattar, Chief Minister of Haryana, announced the launch of free public WiFi in 4 locations of Gurgaon – MG Road, Sadar Bazaar, Sector 29 market and Sarhaul Village. The WiFi connection has been established in partnership with Airtel. Airtel had won the mandate last year to host public internet connection in Gurgaon.
To remind you, it had been promised last year that free WiFi in Haryana would commence from January 2016 but things got delayed and finally six months later we have only four locations equipped with free internet.
How can I use free WiFi?
Users with handsets supporting WiFi will be able to use the services just like other WiFi services. The name of the connection is ‘MSG powered by Airtel’ and users will get about 30 minutes of free internet per day.
However, post 30 minutes, a nominal amount will be charged from the consumer. Airtel users will have the money deducted from their account itself, while other telecom users will have to buy coupons online itself. Details of post-30 minute usage policies have not been provided by the Government.
The contract has been given to Airtel for a period of five years as the free public WiFi expands to other areas in the city, while Airtel has to pay Rs. 10 Lakh to the Municipal Corporation of Gurgaon for using its infrastructure and space to build WiFi hotspots and towers.
What can Gurgaon residents look forward to?
Since the WiFi rollout in one of India’s fastest growing cities has been extremely slow, users can expect Airtel to provide good services in the key areas. Thankfully the Government did not choose state-run government companies like BSNL and MTNL to provide their internet services.
However, there are still a lot of prime locations in Gurgaon, like the Cyber City, Ambience Island, Galleria Market, Rajiv Chowk and Golf Course Road that still do not have free public WiFi. In fact, Gurgaon’s own metro, Rapid Metro, already has WiFi services by MTS, which sees a daily ridership of more than 1 Lakh commuters.
The Government has also assured that free public WiFi will be coming to the locations mentioned above soon, but we do not have any timelines yet. Atleast its a good start and after some waiting, Gurgaon residents will be able to enjoy free WiFi services in some prominent locations of the city.
If you live in Gurgaon, do let us know of the service and connectivity of WiFi in these locations. Hopefully the internet speeds will be good and have good coverage of area.
