Google partners Larsen and Toubro to set up 150 Wi-Fi hotspots in Pune

Google is partnering with Larsen and Toubro to set up over 150 high-speed internet hotspots in Pune, in an experiment to tap urban users to consume more content online and make them transact for services and utilities.

So far, Google has had successfully connected over 270 Railway stations and helped 7.7 million users to access high-speed internet on the move. This has helped the world's largest internet firm to understand user habits better and is expanding the service to urban centres, the first being the so-called Pune smart city.

Google does not restrict users to use only its services through the free internet access it provides, but given the internet companies dominance in the country, it will benefit by driving more traffic on to its existing services such as Youtube, search, email and payments through Tez.

"We built Google Station to be both the highest-quality and easiest Wi-Fi service for users and the easiest for partners to deploy — and we think this makes Station a great connectivity partner for the growing number of Indian smart cities," said Vinay Goel, Product Management Director, Google Station in a statement.

Google will see a benefit from providing free wifi similar to what it saw from first-time users accessing the internet on their smartphones, thanks to the 4G push by Reliance Jio.

The Pune project will be part of part of Pune Smart City Development Corporation Limited’s Smart City project.