Google’s Free WiFi, A Massive Hit; 15 Lakh Passengers Enjoying Free Internet Across 19 Railway Stations
Google’s partnership with Indian Railways for providing free WiFi scheme across Indian railway stations is a massive hit, as 15 lakh passengers are right now enjoying free Internet across 19 major railway stations.
Last year in the month of September, Google had unveiled Project Nilgiri in association with RailTel, the technological arm of Indian Railways for creating World’s largest network of free WiFi hot-spots. 400 Railway Stations would be covered under this project.
While giving an update of on this massive project, Gulzar Azad, Head of Access Programs, Google India said, “We are delighted to share that 1.5 million Indians are now enjoying the high-speed broadband experience across 19 stations. At this scale, this is India’s shining example of a project that is contributing in bridging the digital divide by making high-speed broadband Wi-Fi network more easily accessible to millions of Indians who cross these stations.”
Google posted this blog on the occasion of “World Wi-Fi Day by The Wireless Broadband Alliance”. After Google rolled out free WiFi to 4 major stations: Lucknow Jn, Lucknow, Sealdah & Gorakhpur, there are now 19 stations where passengers can enjoy free WiFi.
Gulzar informed that when Mumbai Central railway station received free WiFi under this project, 1,00,000 users logged in to the service within a week. However, when Bhubaneshwar station was covered, it overtook Mumbai’s record within a day. As per Google, Tier 2-3 cities are witnessing exponential usage. In fact, Tier 2 and 3 cities is witnessing more usage compared to Tier 1 cities.
Another interesting fact: Average usage per user on Google’s free WiFi network is 15 times that of an average usage of a user on 3G pack in a day.
Dawn of WiFi Age In India
Under Digital India Mission, India has witnessed a slew of public WiFi offers and schemes, both from public and private enterprises; and Google’s Project Nilgiri is certainly one of the strongest ones.
India Govt. has already allocated Rs 7000 crore to roll out free WiFi across 2500 cities, and this is just the start.
If Paytm is attempting to disrupt Indian ecommerce with free WiFi for all at major shopping hubs, then Ola is offering free WiFi inside cabs and Amazon is enticing customers at Pune, Hyderabad and Chennai with free unlimited WiFi access.
Hill stations like Mussoorie are getting free WiFi access for tourists, meanwhile Delhi Govt. is trying hard to provide WiFi using an interesting mixture of business models.
Delhi Govt. has already promised free 1 GB of data with 1 mbps speed for every citizen, besides 10 mins of free WiFi in DTC buses.
Not to be left behind, Maharashtra Govt. has pledged to provide 2500 free WiFi hotspots across the state.
And, Bihar has already beaten Beijing to launch world’s longest stretch of Free WiFi zone.
Here is a massive list of free public WiFi hotspots across the country.
