15GB/month at 100 hot spots from Dec 16 in Delhi; 500 more points each week, says CM
The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) Government-led by Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Wednesday announced the Wi-Fi scheme under which a person will get free 15 GB data per month through a hot spot network across the national Capital from December 16. With this announcement, Kejriwal asserted his party has fulfilled all its poll promises.
He said 100 hot spots will be inaugurated in the first phase at bus stands and parks coming under the Samaypur Badli and Adarsh Nagar Assembly constituency on December 16. The CM said 500 more hot spots will be set up every week till the Capital has 11,000 hot spots, as promised by the AAP Government, by September 2020. The Government is also planning to integrate the CCTV cameras with the Wi-Fi hot spots.
“Providing free Wi-Fi facility to the people of Delhi was an essential promise of our manifesto. Internet connectivity and data usage have become a requisite for people in this digital age. Considering the importance of internet in our lives, the Delhi Government has decided to provide free internet on the same lines of providing basic lifeline amenities like 200 units of free electricity and 20,000 liters of free water to the residents of Delhi,” said Kejriwal. Out of the total 11,000 hot spots to be installed across the city, 4,000 hot spots will be installed at bus stands. The remaining 7,000 hot spots will be installed across the marketplaces and Residents’ Welfare Associations (RWAs) in Delhi, with each constituency having 100 hot spots.
As per the officials, the work order for the installation of the 100 free Wi-Fi connections has been awarded and the installation is under process. “The total expenditure of the installation scheme will be around Rs 100 crore. The scheme will operate as per a standard rent model — the Delhi Government will pay rent every month to the company for each hot spot,” said the CM.
The people of Delhi will be able to locate a Wi-Fi connection at every 500 metres in the city, with the hot spot connections supporting a radius of 100 metres. With 15 GB a month, a maximum limit for a day will be 1.5 GB. On an average, the maximum speed of the connection of the data will be 200 mbps, but the estimated speed will be between 100-150 mbps. Each hot spot will be able to support 150-200 users simultaneously, which amounts to around 22 lakh users simultaneously accessing the internet across the city.
The AAP Government has created an mobile application (App) and the users who want to use the free Wi-Fi have to download and fill their KYC details and use the OTPs received on their phones to access the hot spot connections. The Wi-Fi connections will not get disconnected if a user moves from one hot spot zone into another as the connection will be automatically retained.
Installation of more hot spot connections across the remaining areas of the city will be determined on the basis of the experience and the success of these hot spot connections, said officials.
Kejriwal said, “Free internet connection will help students to a great extent and will be beneficial in the sectors of health and education.”
It is also to be noted that the Government first implemented the free Wi-Fi facility on a pilot basis for three months at Sant Nagar market in Burari area of north Delhi, where users were told that they would be able to download 50 MB of data per day free of cost.