In 2015, when Arvind Kejriwal led AAP formed Govt. in Delhi, they have promised free WiFi for every citizen in the National Capital.
Now, 4 years later, the promise will be finally fulfilled.
Free 15GB Data For Every Delhite
Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal has announced that every Delhi citizen will be provided with free 15GB of data, at 200 mbps speed.
For this purpose, 11,000 WiFi hotspots will be setup across the city.
Delhi Assembly Polls is scheduled for February, 2020, and many believe that this offer of free WiFi has been made keeping in mind that. Even if that is the truth, free data wil empower every citizen, without doubt.
Exact dates haven’t been announced, but the CM said that the work has been started. It is being expected that the free WiFi will be rolled out in the next 3-4 months.
Out of 11,000 WiFi hotspots, 4000 will be established at the bus-stops, while the remaining 7000 will be spread across 70 Assembly segments in the National Capital.
Every hotspot will be able to serve 200 users at a time.
World’s Largest WiFi Project
Delhi CM has declared that this World’s largest such WiFi project, and no other Indian city has so many WiFi hotspots for free Internet.
While Kolkata has only 149 WiFi hotspots, Bengaluru was India’s first city to provide free WiFi Internet, but the access is limited to just 50MB and 3 hours a day.
Rs 100 crore will be spent every year, for running this free 15GB data for every citizen program in Delhi.
Besides, 1.4 lakh new CCTVs will be installed across the city, which is in-addition to 1.4 lakh CCTVs existing.
Delhi’s Free WiFi Expansion: Updates Till Now
Free WiFi project in Delhi has been running for quite some time, and people are able to use it.
Delhi’s premier shopping locations: Connaught Place, Khan Market & Karol Bagh were the first to get free WiFi, and this happened in 2014.
When CM Arvind Kejriwal came into power, he announced that entire Delhi will covered via WiFi hotspots within 24 months, and 700 free WiFi hotspots were promised to be created.
In 2015, news came in that Delhi Govt. will offer free WiFi based on the usage basis, and not time limit (to counter Bengaluru’s free WiFi project)
Same year, it was reported that Delhi Govt. will offer 1 GB of free data at 1mbps speed.
By the year end in 2015, Delhi Govt decided to roll out free 10 minutes of data access inside DTC buses.
And in 2017, free WiFi was rolled out inside Delhi Metro.
It would be interesting to observe, how and when free 15GB of data is provided to every Delhite.