New Delhi: Expanding the high speed Internet network facility, Railways will launch the Google's free Wi-Fi service at Vijayawada, Kachiguda and Raipur stations on Thursday. Last month, Wi-Fi service was launched at Bhubaneswar station. Designed to offer passengers the best internet experience, Wi-Fi will be available to any user who has a smartphone.
"Trial of the Wi-Fi is going on for some time at these stations and it will be launched on May 5 through video conferencing here," a senior Railway Ministry official said.
Before Bhubaneswar, Google's free Wi-Fi service was launched in the Mumbai Central. Passengers would be able to stream high definition videos while waiting for their respective trains at the railway station with Wi-Fi becoming operational.
Under the 'Digital India initiative', Railways is committed to provide better internet facilities to the passengers at 100 busiest stations by the end of this year. Railtel, a PSU of the Railways, in collaboration with Google is providing free Wi-Fi service at stations.
Eventually, the service will be rolled out at 400 stations across the country covering all major rail premises. Railtel owns a Pan-India optic fiber network exclusively on railway track. It has laid out over 45,000 kms of optic fibre networks across the country, which Google will utilise for its Wi-Fi.
The network is built for wide coverage and high capacity usage unlike a typical Wi-Fi hotspot which offers connectivity in limited area.
As per the plan, Railtel will be the ISP, while Google will provide the Wireless Area Networks (WAN) and will set-up the points of access at platforms.
