Google
will deploy WiFi at 100 railway stations in partnership with Railtel.
Mumbai Central will be the first station to get free Wi-Fi by January
2016 - See more at:
http://indianexpress.com/article/technology/tech-news-technology/explained-what-is-googles-wifi-at-railway-station-project-and-how-will-it-work/#sthash.BoLLnnJr.dpuf
Google
will deploy WiFi at 100 railway stations in partnership with Railtel.
Mumbai Central will be the first station to get free Wi-Fi by January
2016 - See more at:
http://indianexpress.com/article/technology/tech-news-technology/explained-what-is-googles-wifi-at-railway-station-project-and-how-will-it-work/#sthash.BoLLnnJr.dpuf
Google
will deploy WiFi at 100 railway stations in partnership with Railtel.
Mumbai Central will be the first station to get free Wi-Fi by January
2016 - See more at:
http://indianexpress.com/article/technology/tech-news-technology/explained-what-is-googles-wifi-at-railway-station-project-and-how-will-it-work/#sthash.BoLLnnJr.dpuf
Google will deploy WiFi at
100 railway stations in partnership with Railtel. Mumbai Central will be
the first station to get free Wi-Fi by January 2016
|
Google CEO Sundar Pichai
announced company’s push to bring internet access to more users. The
company also announced that Mumbai Central will get free Wi-Fi by
January 2016 (Source: Express Photo by Renuka Puri) |
Google CEO Sundar Pichai had first announced about the the company’s
free WiFi at railway stations in India when PM Modi had visited the
company campus in Mountain View, California in September. Under the
project, Google plans to provide free and high-speed Wi-Fi access to
railway commuters at over 400 stations in India. Google has partnered
with Railtel Corporation to make this project a reality.
How’s the project going to scale out? Which stations will get covered?
According to Google’s announcement today, the first station to get
free Wi-Fi under this scheme will be Mumbai Central, where testing has
already been carried out. Google’s free Wi-Fi at Mumbai Central goes
live by January, 2016. Google plans to make free Wi-Fi live at over 100
stations in India by the end of 2016. The free Wi-Fi scheme will target
stations across each railway zone in India.At the end of 2016, Google will evaluate the project to see how it
will expand the free Wi-Fi scheme further. Google says that preparations
are already on in multiple stations to make the project a reality.
So how exactly will Google’s free Wi-Fi work? Why has it partnered with RailTel?
Railtel is the PSU which 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.In this case, Railtel will be the ISP, while Google will provide the
Wireless Area Networks (WAN) and will set-up the points of access at
platforms. It should be noted that Google’s free WiFi will only work at
the platforms and is not meant for the trains.
Will Google have some guidelines, standards for this free public WiFi?
Google says the idea with its free WiFi is to ensure wide coverage
and high capacity. According to Google VP for Access and Emerging
Markets Marian Croak, the company sees a potential of 10 million users
accessing its WiFi each day by the end of 2016 from across these railway
stations. And Google wants to make sure that these 10 million users get
broadband quality experience when using its Wi-Fi.For instance, Google will try and ensure that the WiFi railway users
who watch videos on the network get at least HD standard streaming.
Google will also aim to maintain speed, efficiency across a board of
devices.
Will the service always be free? What’s the revenue model here for Google?
Google says that the service will be free to begin with, although it
has not yet specified whether it will eventually charge for this WiFi.
It should be noted that free WiFi in other public places like airports
is free for a limited time period only. On the revenue model, Google
hopes that this will be self-sustainable and it will start exploring
with different revenue models later on. For now the focus will be on
getting the project up and running.