Google last year tied up with RailTel to provide Wi-Fi services across the railway stations in India. The company aims to expand the service to 400 railway stations by 2017 and 100 by the end of this year. With Google’s Wi-Fi service gaining traction in India, RailTel is now looking for more partners to benefit users.
After Google , it is social media giant Facebook, which is looking to hook up with Indian Railways to provide Wi-Fi across railway stations. RK Bahuguna, chairman of Indian Railways' communications arm RailTel, said the company will start talks with Facebook for expanding its Wi-Fi coverage not only to railway stations but to villages in the vicinity as well.
“Through this (Facebook) initiative, we will be able to offer data services up to a 10-km radius from a connected rail stop, which however can further be increased by up to 25 km via additional access points,” Bahuguna told ET. “Facebook India has approached us for the Wi-Fi initiative.
Facebook recently concluded a pilot across 125 rural locations after purchasing bandwidth from state-run Bharat Sanchar Nigam (BSNL), and is currently in talks with various Internet service firms for Express Wi-Fi expansion in the country.
Under the Google-RailTel Internet programme, nearly 2 million people access free Wi-Fi every month across 21 railway stations.
RailTel is also an Internet service provider and holds a category-A licence for it. According to Bahuguna, providing Wi-Fi service is not viable for RailTel, but with support from the Universal Service Obligation (USO) fund, it can extend the programme to as many as 40,000 villages surrounding 4,000 Internet-ready railway stations across the country.
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