Hyderabad: The free Wi-Fi project, installed at over 1,000 public places under the GHMC limits, has gone for a toss. The hotspots were identified with an assured bandwidth of 5-10 Mbps, offering a 30-minute free Wi-Fi.
Though the service was provided project after the project was inaugurated citizens claimed that the hotspots are not working since three months. About the dysfunctional Wi-FI hotspots, Mayor Bonthu Rammohan said he would conduct a review meeting with service providers to sort out the issue. He also said that the government will take steps to make Hyderabad a Wi-Fi city. The government earmarked '300 crore in June 2015 under the digital TS project and Wi-Fi hotspots were installed on Necklace Road and at Tank Bund in June 2015.
Nearly 1,000 hotspots to provide free Internet for the first 30 minutes were installed in 2017. The project was inaugurated by the Mayor. Internet service provider ACT Fibernet was supposed to manage the facility. However, it remained on paper. At the inauguration, it was promised to set up additional 2,000 hotspots within three months. Sources said that the service providers are shying away from the project as the GHMC does not give permission to dig and lay underground cables.
The service providers also sought relaxations in advertisement tariff and asked the government to provide a financial source to provide the free internet service.
