'BhubaneswarMe Wi-Fi' launched

Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik Monday launched the 'BhubaneswarMe Wi-Fi by Bhubaneswar Smart City Limited to make the city accessible across its major happening places.

On the first day 100 hotspots located in major locations with 275 access points (APs) went live, an official said.

One wi-fi hotspot would be able to handle 150 users at a given point of time and the Internet speed will be available at 2 mega bytes per second (MBPS), he said.

"I am very happy that the BhubaneswarMe Wi-Fi project will become the first ever project in the country with a unique capability to cover the entire city. I hope all citizens, especially the younger generation will find the facility very useful, " Chief Minister said after launching the facility.

There will be no charge on data usage for citizens, when they access government services through this network, Patnaik said and added that this will help the state government to bridge the digital divide.

Access to 250 MB of data will be free for any user on a given day, the official said.

The hotspots are located on major locations between KIIT Square to Governor House, Acharya Vihar to AG Square, Sishu Bhawan to Vani Vihar and Nalco Square to Acharya Vihar, he said.

Bhubaneswar Smart City Limited is a Special Purpose Vehicle incorporated by Housing and Urban Development Department, Government of Odisha to implement the Smart City proposal of Bhubaneswar.

Officials said the Phase-I launching of the wi-fi network with 100 hotspots would be followed by 100 locations in the Phase II. It would be increased later to 518 hotspots across the city to complete the City Wide Wi-Fi Network.

In all there would be three phases and the city would have 1,800 access points, the officials said addint the wi-fi network uses a wireless band of 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz available for use, based on the handset capabilities of the user.

After the consumption of the free 250 MB daily data, a person would be required to log in and choose a payment plan for subsequent use. 'BhubaneswarMe Wi-Fi' will provide very low-cost top up plans for the users.

A person should be within at least 300 m reach of the access point to login to the network, the officials said.