Vijayawada: The free usage time for the 5G Wi-Fi service, which was launched with 17 hotspots in May at the Pandit Nehru Bus Station ( PNBS) , has been reduced to 15 minutes instead of 30 minutes as promised. Few users seemed interested to utilise the prepaid card services after exhausting the 30-minute free time.
The APSRTC launched the first-of-its-kind 24x7 free 5G Wi-Fi system in collaboration with private network providers. During the inauguration in May, officials had said that passengers can access free 5G Wi-Fi at 17 hotspots for 30 minutes. But when it comes to reality the free access time is just 15 minutes.
With lukewarm response, and users not logging in beyond the free time, vendors at the bus stand are facing a loss as most of the coupons have remained unused over the last thre months. The coupons were distributed by QuadGen Technologies at Rs 2,800 for a set of 100 coupons.
“The firm gave a set of coupons for Rs 2,800. Out of 100 coupons, only 20 were sold,” said Mr Brahma Reddy, a vendor at Pandit Nehru Bus Station. Other vendors too faced the same situation.
“The QuadGen team launched the project to make PNBS as the first city bus stand in the country to have Wi-Fi connectivity 24X7. Five shops were selected and given one set of coupons each. Passengers could purchase these coupons after the consumption of free time to use the Wi-Fi services,” Mr V.S.B. Prabhakaram, deputy general manager, told Deccan Chronicle.
QuadGen reportedly invested nearly Rs 25 lakh on equipment and to provide network in partnership which BSNL, which supplied the optical fibre. QuadGen has installed Wi-Fi services in Tir-upati, Kurnool, Ananta pur, Kadapa, Eluru, Rajahmundry, Kovvuru, Kakinada, while Guntur and Vizag are under development.
