Modi's adopted village is now wi-fi hotspot

Prime Minister Narendra Modi's adopted village 'Jayapur' in his Varanasi parliamentary constituency is now a wi-fi hotspot.

The free wi-fi services started in Jayapur village this week, courtesy Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) Uttar Pradesh (East) Circle chief general manager (CGM) H R Shukla told Business Standard here.

Apart from Jayapur, the Varanasi airport has also been provided free wi-fi service by BSNL.

Earlier, eight ghats in Varanasi and two spots in Sarnath had been turned wi-fi spots last year. A wi-fi hotspot typically needs an investment of about Rs 10 lakh.

The company has identified three dozen new wi-fi hotspots across UP in Lucknow, Varanasi, Kanpur, Gorakhpur and Jhansi.

"These spots have been identified on the basis of economic feasibility and footfalls. We would collaborate with private parties under a revenue sharing model at these spots," he informed.

Currently, the free wi-fi service is available for the first 15 minutes. In the next phase, BSNL would fix charges applicable for wi-fi use beyond the first 15 minutes.

Meanwhile, BSNL is upgrading its 3G infrastructure in UP to offer better voice and data services in all the major cities.

BSNL had been mandated to connect 37,455 village panchayats in UP (East) under the ongoing National Optical Fibre Network (NOFN).

NOFN is a project to provide broadband connectivity on optical fibre to 2,50,000 village panchayats across India for the implementation of services such as e-health, e-education and e-governance