Google's free Wi-Fi to be launched at Bhubaneswar station

Expanding the high speed internet network facility for rail users, Indian Railways will launch Google's free Wi-Fi service at Bhubaneswar station on April 17, the second station to be covered under the project.

Designed to offer rail users the best internet experience, Wi-Fi will be available to any user who has a smartphone.

Trial of the Wi-Fi is going on for some time at Bhubaneswar in Odisha and it will be launched on Sunday, said a senior Railway Ministry official.

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After Mumbai Central, Bhubaneswar will be the second station to have Google's free Wi-Fi service in the country. Rail users would be able to stream high definition videos while waiting for their respective trains at the railway station with Wi-Fi becoming operational.

Under the Digital India initiative, the railways is committed to providing better internet facilities to the passengers at the 100 busiest stations by the end of this year.

Besides Bhubaneswar, trials are going on at about 10 more stations, including Jaipur, Patna, Ranchi, Ernakulum, Allahabad, Lucknow and Guwahati, to have the Wi-Fi service shortly.

Railtel, a public sector unit of the railways, in collaboration with Google, is providing free Wi-Fi service at stations. Eventually, the service will be rolled out at 400 stations across the country covering all major rail premises.

Railtel owns a pan-India optic fibre network exclusively on railway tracks. It has laid out over 45,000 kilometres of optic fibre networks across the country, which Google will utilise for its Wi-Fi.

The network is built for wide coverage and high capacity usage unlike a typical Wi-Fi hotspot which offers connectivity in limited area.

According to the plan, Railtel will be the internet service provider, while Google will provide the wireless area networks and will set-up the points of access at platforms.