Google, RailTel's Free Wi-Fi Service Comes to 5 More Railway Stations

HIGHLIGHTS

• RailTel’s Wi-Fi now at Jaipur, Patna, Allahabad, 2 more railway stations.
• With these launches, the service is now available at 15 stations.
• Google, Indian Railways & RailTel aim to deliver high-speed Wi-Fi network

Google on Monday announced the launch of its free high-speed public Wi-Fi service - implemented in collaboration with RailTel - at Ujjain, Jaipur, Patna, Guwahati, and Allahabad railway stations.

This is in continuation with its project to provide high-speed public Wi-Fi service at 100 Railway stations across India by end of the year, Google said in a release. Minister of Railways Suresh Prabhu will formally inaugurate the service at these stations soon, it added.

Google said it has been deploying the service over the extensive fibre network of Indian Railway's armRailTel which provides Internet services as RailWire. With these launches, the service is now live and available to users at 15 stations across the country, it added. Google last month announced, it had launched its free Wi-Fi service in 9 more railway stations across India, starting with Mumbai Central in January. April's rollout saw Bhubaneswar, Bhopal, Ernakulum Jn (Kochi), Kacheguda (Hyderabad), Mumbai Central, Pune, Ranchi, Raipur, Vijayawada, and Vishakhapatnam.

Backed by the "phenomenal" response to the service in Mumbai Central, Google will also extend the project to cover key suburban Mumbai stations working with RailTel, it said in Monday's statement. Google will deploy the service in Dadar, Bandra Terminus, Churchgate, Thane, Kalyan, Panvel, Vashi, Kurla, ChattrapatiShivaji Terminus, Borivali and a few others, it added.

"We're seeing incredible usage of the Wi-Fi service across the stations and over 2.5 lakhs users are using the service every week, demonstrating more than 2x growth in less than a month," Google India Head of Access Programs Gulzar Azad said.

Stating that Google is committed to working with Indian Railways and RailTel to deliver high-speed Wi-Fi network that will be available to 10 million Indians by the end of the year, covering 100 of the busiest train stations in India, it said the project will be eventually rolled out to cover 400 train stations across India.