Passengers waiting for their trains at Ranchi railway station can soon surf the Internet free of cost as the biggest railway station of the state capital will soon be equipped with high speed Wi-Fi service, an initiative taken up by RailTel – the internet-service providing arm of Indian Railways – in collaboration with Google.
Railway stations in Ranchi, Patna, Allahabad and Jaipur are the four stations to receive Railwire Wi-Fi shortly. Unlike the typical Wi-Fi hotspots, this network will feature wide coverage and high capacity usage. The service will prove beneficial to the thousands of passengers boarding trains from Ranchi railway station every day, who can access it using their smartphones.
Recently, Mumbai Central railway station became the first railway station in the country to receive the service. Announced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi during his visit to Google headquarters in Mountain View last September, the project is set to become the public Wi-Fi service covering the highest number of users. The busiest 100 railway stations of the country are to be equipped with Railwire Wi-Fi by the end of 2016.
Although the fair usage limit and the charges to be paid after crossing are yet to be disclosed, the service is aimed at becoming self-sustainable so that it can be made expanded to other stations in future.