RailWire Wi-Fi at Railway Stations registers 2 crores+ user logins in a Month
6 out of top 10 stations, in terms of user logins, are in Tier 1 cities
RAJAN MISHRA
01 JULY 2019
RailWire Wi-Fi by RailTel at Indian Railways stations is gaining popularity with each passing day. In the month of May 2019, the total user logins were 2.35 crore in1600 stations across India. The total unique users for the Wi-Fi were 1.19 crore consuming 8781.30 TB data. It was also noticed that stations in Tier 1 cities like Kolkata, Delhi Mumbai register a greater number of user logins and data consumption than their tier 2 counterparts. Howrah station alone saw 4.9 lakh user logins in one month. The numbers speak volume about the fact that despite of having easy access to mobile internet, public Wi-Fi is still a preferred choice of the Rail users while at railway stations. Usage statistics show significant pent up demand for connectivity, amongst train commuters in stations covered by the station Wi-Fi project who have used the service.
With unconstrained, free high-speed Wi-Fi connectivity, an average user consumes 343 MB in an average 30-minute data session. This is much higher than what we observe on an average 3G connection in the country currently, around 30MB per user per day. Inspired by this vision of Digital India, Indian Railways and RailTel created a plan to transform Indian Railways stations into digital inclusion platform by providing fast free public Wi-Fi at stations. The journey of RailWire station Wi-fi started from Mumbai Central in January 2016 and within 2 years 4 months the RailWire Wi-Fi was live at 1600 stations across India. The stations came in all sizes, it took more than 100+ access points to cover the 23 platforms of Howrah station while several smaller stations in rural India could be served with a single access point.
Talking about the Wi-Fi service at stations, Sh. Puneet Chawla, CMD/RailTel said, ‘Internet in India is largely mobile internet with a high percentage of them on 2G and 3G while RailTel had sought to bridge the Digital Divide by providing free and fast Wi-Fi, which also bridges the experience divide of the internet where millions of users experience fast access to internet for the first time. Moreover, as per the World Bank a 10% increase in internet penetration leads to a 1.4% increase in GDP. This also augurs well for our economy.
RailTel has provided high speed Wi-Fi at 1606 stations, now the Wi-Fi service will be
extended to another 4791 stations within this year which will enable every stations of Indian Railways (except the halt stations) to have a Wi-Fi hotspot\ Free Wi-Fi services to passengers are being provided under ‘RailWire’ brand- the retail Broadband initiative of RailTel. Designed to offer users the best Internet experience,
RailWire Wi-Fi will be available to any user who has a smartphone with working mobile connection for KYC considerations. To use the Wi-Fi the user has to switch on the Wi-Fi mode in the smartphone and select the RailWire Wi-Fi network. After the RailWire homepage network automatically appears on the smartphone, the user has to enter his or her mobile number on this homepage. The user will get one-time password (OTP) in form of SMS in the message box which has to be entered in the home page of RailWire. After entering OTP Users will be able to access high speed internet & can start internet browsing.
It is estimated that 20000 users everyday are first time users of the internet and there are very heartwarming stories of how the station Wi-Fi has helped to transform lives. A porter clearing Kerala public service commission examination studying at station using RailWire Wi-Fi, a mother who is an auto driver by profession visiting railway station for using Wi-Fi to update her knowledge to teach her son, Cancer patients from economically weak section coming to Mumbai station to use Wi-Fi for entertainment, a Fashion Designing student using station Wi-Fi to sell her creation or a cafeteria manager at Bareily using RailWire Wi- Fi to keep track of trains for planning food preparation for his café to offer faster service and reduce wastage – RailWire Wi-Fi is surely helping hundreds of people to fulfill their dreams.
About RailTel
RailTel Corporation a "Mini Ratna (Category-I)" PSU is one of the largest neutral telecom services providers in the country owning a Pan-India optic fiber network covering all important towns & cities of the country and several rural areas. Along with a strong a reliable network of 48000+ RKM of Optic fibre RailTel has two tier III data centres as well, RailTel is at the forefront of providing nationwide Broadband Telecom & Multimedia Network in all parts of the country in addition to modernization of Train operations and administration of network systems for Indian Railways. With its Pan India high capacity network, RailTel is working towards creating a knowledge society at various fronts and has been selected for implementation of various mission-mode Govt. of India projects in the telecom field. RailTel offers a bundle of services like, MPLS-VPN, Telepresence, Leased line, Tower Co-location, Data centre services etc,. RailTel is a pioneer in transforming Railway stations into Digital hub by providing public Wi-Fi at major Railway stations. Currently1606 stations across India are live with RailTel’s RailWire Wi-Fi.
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