Setting the process of providing “free Wi-Fi” in the national Capital in motion, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) Government has decided to provide free Wi-Fi services to city residents by February next year. The amount of free usage will be decided on the basis of limited data usage instead of setting a time limit, said a Government official.
Adarsh Shastri, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for IT, said the Government will work on ensuring a minimum speed of 512 kbps to each user to make it a better experience. “We will be very strict on user experience and uninterrupted service,” Shastri said.
The Government is considering fixing the data usage to 50 mb per day but a call is yet to be taken in that regard. Shastri said that while the Government will not fix a time but will restrict bandwidth. “Internet will be charged on the basis of data usage per day. Once the data limit is exhausted, users can avail the service by paying for extra usage. Everyday the system will be reset,” he said.
According to a senior official, the Government will release Expression of Interest (EoI) for the project by the end of this month followed by Request for Proposal (RfP) in June with the work to be awarded by July. Around 150 companies from around the world have expressed interest in the project, the official said.
Free Wi-Fi in Delhi was among the prominent pre-poll promises made by the AAP. Senior officials said that website browsing, social media websites (Facebook/Twitter), e-mail and WhatsApp and other basic services will remain free while a user will have to pay for watching videos, video chat and downloading content.
The Information Technology Department is in the process of identifying 1,000 places along with the Ground Water Survey and Development Agency (GSDA) for setting up hotspots in the first phase of implementation.
Officials said they have also studied the existing system in place in cities like Stockholm, Barcelona, Shanghai and Singapore. “International projects were state-sponsored models but ours is dynamic so the Government can get revenue from the services,” Shastri said.
Talking about the revenue model, Shastri said, “This will be a first-of-its-kind project to be tested on such a large scale. In Delhi, there are around 2 crore wireless devices which can access Internet. If at any point, 25-30 per cent people access the Internet, it means approximately 50 lakh users… At present, Shanghai has the largest model which caters to 4.5 lakh people. But with 50 lakh users, we have large avenues for monetisation. We can also categorise the content being accessed, etc., which provides a big scope for targeted advertising,” said Shastri.
The Government plans to set-up 50,000-80,000 hotspots across the city as part of the free Wi-Fi endeavour. “Delhi is spread across 1,463 sq-km area; we will cover markets, parks, Metro stations and high-density areas. We will cover 60 per cent of Delhi,” said Shastri, adding that residential areas, green belts, farm belts and rural belts will not be covered.
“As it is a public Wi-FI, it will be available only at public places. An access point (AP) covers a 50 sq-m area, so multiple APs will be installed in one area,” added Shastri.