Google to provide Wi-Fi hotspot connectivity at 400+ railway stations across India

Google Fiber is a name that is famous among tech lovers and geeks alike 
who love speed for browsing, streaming or downloading content on the 
internet. Google fibre currently provides speeds up to 1 Gbps in Kansas 
city in the USA and has plans of expanding to other cities in the 
country. On numerous occasions, we have heard about the possibility of 
Google Fiber making its way to India. Telangana State’s IT minister K T 
Ramarao has also signed an agreement with Google for setting Google’s 
biggest campus outside US in Hyderabad 
<http://articles.economictimes.indiatimes.com/2015-05-13/news/62124183_1_brand-hyderabad-silicon-valley-campus>.

TelecomTalk has learnt that the tech giant has ambitious plans for India 
and is in the process of setting up a nationwide network of Wi-Fi 
hotspots across key Railway stations and Junctions to provide seamless 
connectivity to passengers making their way across the labyrinthine rail 
network across the length and breadth of the country. Google is working 
in closely with *Railtel, *a PSU having a Pan India Optic fiber network 
running along railway tracks in rural and urban regions covering 70% of 
India’s population.

“The Indian Railways has currently undertaken a pilot project in 
combination with google under the code name of ‘*Project Nilgiri*‘ under 
which in phase 1 we will be setting up Wi-Fi hotspots at approximately 
400 stations across India over a span of 4 months from now. Wi-Fi 
connectivity will be made available for free to passengers after mobile 
number verification through a one-time password sent over SMS. First 30 
minutes will be high speed after which speed will be reduced but 
connectivity will still continue” an insider source who did not wish to 
be named revealed to TelecomTalk.

Currently, companies like MTS and Oxygen provide Wi-Fi connectivity at 
railway and metro stations in urban regions but this is sporadic and not 
uniform Pan India, the endeavour by google will change this completely. 
At present, Indian railways provides Wi-Fi connectivity in moving trains 
for select routes like Rajdhani express using satellite communication 
technology. Google in phase 2 expansion plans to provide Wi-Fi on board 
moving trains Pan India using cutting edge technology.

* TT perspective:*

This seems to be a rather exciting project and since it’s undertaken by 
Google we inevitably have high hopes. As visible in the screenshot the 
network will be high speed and be provided free of cost after SMS 
verification, which in itself is quite a promise. Currently, 
the download speeds are somewhere in the 7 Mbps range while upload 
speeds are in 5 Mbps range. In a month or two WLC’s will be set up in 
Mumbai and Chennai after which latency will fall to 1-2 ms and speeds 
will increase. So we are totally looking forward to this welcome move.

http://telecomtalk.info/google-wi-fi-hotspot-connectivity-railway-stations-across-india/142629/

Most cordially,

Ken DiPietro
Cumberland MD

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