THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The much-hyped public Wi-Fi hotspot project of the state government has been kept in the cold storage as mobile service providers are now busy with their 4G rollout in the state.
IT department sources said, though there was a plan to go for a re-tendering after the feeble response to the initial tender process last year, it was put on hold as the mobile service providers were busy with 4G launch.
The project envisages Wi-Fi connectivity at major spots across the state and offering limited free internet access to the public. “During discussions, they were quite sceptical about the viability of the project with the conditions prescribed by the government. Hence, we looked into the option of revising the conditions. But the mobile service providers were then busy with rolling out 4G and hence the response need not be impressive. So the project is now kept in abeyance for the time being,” they said.
Kerala State IT Mission director Mohammed Safirulla said the project would be taken forward after the elections. During the initial tendering process many cellular firms had made enquiries about the project. But only Reliance Jio submitted tenders, prompting the IT department to consider the option of retendering, which was later shelved.
