Indian rail passengers get to log on for free
Print Edition
Google Inc has begun offering free WiFi to Mumbai train passengers in hopes of boosting its role in the Indian market.
Giggling groups of students, bored commuters and snack-shop vendors were all logging on yesterday at Mumbai Central Train Station, the first of 400 stations the company plans to eventually reach with the service.
“If my train is leaving, and I need to search, don’t know where to go, then immediately I will get the answer,” student Divya Patel said excitedly while waiting for a train to her hometown in the western state of Gujarat. “This is very good, and good for everyone.”
Free WiFi is rare across India. Most of the country’s 300 million Internet users pay for personal access and often rely on slow-loading smartphone connectivity.
With a massive 1.25 billion population in India, including 6 million new Internet users every month, Silicon Valley tech giants such as Google, Facebook and Microsoft have set sights on expanding in the Indian market. Online retailers Amazon and eBay have also launched services in the country.
With more than 23 million people riding Indian railways every day, Google said free Internet in train stations will give high-speed access that many can’t afford. It also hopes to diversify India’s user base, given that less than a third of Internet users in India are women, and has been upgrading its services in Hindi.
“Most of India is still not online,” Google CEO Sundar Pichai said. “We want to bring access to as many people as possible.”
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