Telangana aims at Rs 1.2 lakh crore IT exports in 5 years

Launches public WiFi pilot project in Hyderabad called QuadGen in association with BSNL

The Telangana government is aiming at garnering IT exports to the tune of Rs 1.2 lakh crore over the next five years, from the present level of Rs 60,000 crore, said minister for IT and panchayatraj KT Rama Rao.

“With the presence of a large pool of talented IT professional and home to leading MNCs, the city has earned the reputation of being the destination of choice for businesses across industries. Initiatives like WiFi-enabled city will bring a great economic value and open up business avenues,” he said.

The IT sector in Hyderabad employs over 325,000 people.

Inaugurating the Hyderabad WiFi project here today by having a live video (Face Time and Skype) call with IT and telecommunications minister Ravi Shankar  Prasad, Rao said the project was positioned to enable the fastest WiFi hotspot using the readily available OFC (optical fibre cable) network of over 4,500 km length in the twin cities.

The pilot, launched in association with BSNL and telecommunications services provider QuadGen, will enable citizens to have Internet access with speeds of 10 megabit per second (Mbps), free for the first half an hour and chargeable thereon. “Around 2,500 citizens can login at one go, and invoke speeds of between 2mbps and 20mbps under the  project launched in 10-km radius of Tank Bund,” said QuadGen founder and chairman CS Rao.

“Our plan is to provide WiFi services at over 2,000 locations in the twin cities and about 50 villages in Telangana in Phase-I in the next 180 days, thereby becoming the first fully WiFi-enabled city in the country,” the minister said.

Jayesh Ranjan, IT secretary, Telangana, said they were working towards bringing in 4G network throughout the state by August 15, 2015.