Speaking on the occasion, Minister of Railways Shri Suresh Prabhu said that digitalization and technology is one of the prime requirements of any country or organization to bloom fully. This facility at Kacheguda, Raipur and Vijayawada stations will enable the thousands of passengers commuting through these stations to enjoy high speed Wi-Fi service.” He further said that Affordable smartphones have made it possible for the commonmen to experience the power of Internet and thus users will be able to easily stream a high definition video while they’re waiting, search their destination, download a book or a new game to enjoy the journey. The Railway is soon going to launch Wi-Fi at 14 more stations & will cover 100 stations by the end of this year.
Salient Features : –
Kacheguda, Raipur and Vijayawada Railway Stations becomes Wi-Fi hot spot from 5th May 2016 2016 when Sh. Suresh Prabhakar Prabhu, Minister of Railways, launched and dedicated the service to the large number of commuters of these stations remotely from Rail Bhavan, New Delhi. The Wi-Fi facility for the visitors & rail users of Kacheguda, Raipur and Vijayawada Railway Stations has been commissioned by RailTel in association with Google for providing high speed state of the art world class internet experience to the commuters.
RailTel Corporation of India Ltd., a Mini-Ratna PSU under Ministry of Railways, has been mandated by Ministry of Railways to provide Wi-Fi for use of passengers at A1, A & B category Railway stations. RailTel engaged with Google as the technology partner for setting up high speed Wi-Fi network initially in A1 & A category stations. RailTel shall upgrade its backbone infrastructure to backhaul high speed connectivity of approx. 1Gbps per station. At Railway stations, RailTel shall be providing power & fiber network infrastructure while Google shall provide the Radio access Network. Wi-Fi services to passengers shall be provided under ‘Railwire’ the retail Broadband distribution model of RailTel.
Designed to offer users the best Internet experience, Railwire Wi-Fi will be available to any user who has a working mobile connection on a smart phone. Users will be able to easily stream a high definition video while they’re waiting, research their destination, or save some videos for offline viewing, download a book or a new game for the journey.
On the occasion of launch, CMD of RailTel said, “Our intent was to fulfill Indian Railway’s vision of providing Railway passengers access to high speed Internet through our Optical fiber communication network. Affordable smartphones have made it possible for the common men to experience the power of Internet. With our partnership with Google, we are very confident of rolling out a robust, scalable service at Railway stations in the near future.”
In this project Wi Fi will be provided at approx.. 400 stations i.e. all A1 / A category Railway stations. The work of 100 stations has been planned and Wi-Fi facility at Allahabad, Bhopal, Pune, Ranchi, Ernakulum Jn. (Kochi), Jaipur, Patna, Guwahati, Ujjain Vishakhapatnam, Lucknow, Lucknow Jn (NE), Gorakhpur &Sealdah will be live soon with all 100 stations expected to be completed by December 2016. The work at remaining 300 stations shall be taken up in 2017.
About RailTel
RailTel Corporation a “Mini Ratna (Category-I)” PSU is one of the largest neutral telecom services providers in the country owning a Pan-India optic fiber network covering all important towns & cities of the country and several rural areas covering 70% of India’s population. RailTel is in the forefront in providing nationwide Broadband Telecom & Multimedia Network in all parts of the country in addition to modernization of Train operations and administration network systems for Indian Railways. With its Pan India high capacity network, RailTel is working towards creating a knowledge society at various fronts and has been selected for implementation of various mission-mode Govt. of India projects in the telecom field.