Google has extended free internet service through WiFi to 10 railway stations as part of its tie up with Railtel, the internet provider arm of Indian Railways. After the first launch at Mumbai Central, last year, the high speed wireless broadband service now covers stations in Pune, Bhubaneshwar, Bhopal, Ranchi, Raipur, Vijayawada, Kacheguda (Hyderabad), Ernakulum Jn (Kochi) and Vishakhapatnam, providing internet to over 1.5 million people.

Gulzar Azad, Head of Access Project, Google India said that this project will be the largest publicly accessible high speed Wi-Fi network in the country with 100 live stations, but the real hope of this project is to set new benchmarks in delivering a reliable and consistent network connectivity in the country

Some important points

• The service built over the fiber network of Raitel is designed to offer high speed broadband experience to users
• Travellers passing through these stations will now be able to easily stream a high definition video while they’re waiting, research their destination, download a book or a new game for their journey.
• Google is committed to work with Indian Railways and Railtel to deliver high-speed Wi-Fi network that will be available to 10 million Indians a day by the end of the year, covering 100 of the busiest train stations in India.
• The project will be eventually rolled out to cover 400 train stations across India.