Most youngsters, especially college-goers, admit to spending up to Rs 1000 per month on their phone recharges, which include data card recharges. So, wherever free Wi-Fi is available, they exploit it the maximum.
In April, the Kochi city corporation had announced a project to set up free Wi-Fi access points at 10 locations in the city and the authorities chose some of the most crowded and sought-after spots — Fort Kochi, Mattancherry, Marine Drive, High Court, Subhash Park, Corporation main office, Jose Junction, Vyttila Mobility Hub, Edapally junction and Kaloor for the same.
A speed of 10mbps was promised on registering their mobiles on the network for which the user would receive an authenticated Wi-Fi password.
Unfortunately, the much-hyped project has failed to catch up with the gen-y of the city as not many were able to access the Wi-Fi and the connectivity being too slow.
Sharath Menon, a media student at the Sacred Hearts College, Kochi, is of the opinion that they should have chosen better locations.
“What is the point of providing free Wi-Fi at signals and junctions. There should be a proper facility to sit and use the free Wi-Fi because we don’t use Wi-Fi for just five minutes or so. Moreover, the wi-fi connection at Subhash Park is available for just half an hour.”
Ajith Unni, a postgraduate student at the Sacred Hearts, is of the same opinion. He says he will be more than happy to use free Wi-Fi as he shells out Rs 400 on phone recharge a month.
“One of the main reasons for using free Wi-Fi is to update apps in our phone and we are definitely not going to do that in a crowded place or when stuck in traffic. May be when we wait for bus, but even that is rare.”
By proper facility what these youngsters are referring to is a spot where they could sit and hangout and use the free Wi-Fi. This is exactly the psyche which most cafe’s have tapped into. It is now one of their most efficient marketing techniques as almost all the newly-opened cafes in the city provide free express Wi-Fi.
Praveen Mohan, who owns Cafe 17, says, “We have not projected that we offer free Wi-Fi, but almost 50 per cent of the youngsters who come here use it. They ask us if we provide free Wi-Fi the minute they walk in. For them, the priority is not just food.”
Many of the girls also prefer to use free Wi-Fi in comfortable and safe locations “Girls don’t prefer open Wi-Fi sources, most of us like secluded locations. I believe it is also because some girls find it embarrassing to hang out in the open just to use Wi-Fi,” says Krishna Warrier, an MA Graphic Design student. Her friend Meenu Antony differs. “I don’t think it has anything to do with being embarrassed, but we just don’t like using open source Wi-Fi for safety reasons.”
Gautam Jayachandran, a second year BA Animation student, points out that many of them do not use free open Wi-Fi sources mostly due to slow network.
“Wi-Fi speed slows down in crowded places which deters people from using it. The corporation officials must come up with better speed depending on the location.”
At a time when the world is moving on from Wi-Fi to a 100 times faster Li-Fi, it seems that getting uninterrupted free Wi-Fi in Kochi might take more time.
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