IT Minister K. Tarakarama Rao, recently launched free public Wi-Fi services at the Hussain Sagar Lake area in the city of Hyderabad. The wireless Internet service is being offered by BSNL and has been introduced as a pilot project. The state-owned telecom provider has enlisted the help of Quadgen Wireless Solutions in order to carry out this task under the banner of the Hyderabad Wi-Fi project.
Although BSNL announced that it will be setting up public Wi-Fi zones in 2500 Indian cities soon, it doesn’t seem to be moving fast enough with this initiative. At the unveiling of the service at Hyderabad’s Hussain Sagar Lake, union Communications and IT Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad (pictured below, second from the left), was present via live video call.
The newly inaugurated Wi-Fi zone will be accessible to people living around the lake area. Even though it’s said to be ‘free’, that’s not entirely true. Users will be able to surf the Internet for free for the first half an hour. After that, they will have to pay the stipulated amount in order to stay connected. BSNL promises a speed of up to 10Mbps, according to NDTV Gadgets.
Also see: Free high speed Wi-Fi coverage in 2500 Indian cities soon, says BSNL
The Telangana government is keen to have the whole of Hyderabad covered by Wi-Fi services. It intends to provide wireless Internet to the public at 2000 locations across the city and in 50 villages within the state, in six short months. It may be an achievable goal due to the ready availability of an optic fiber cable network of almost 4000km within the area.
The idea is to take a leaf from places like London, San Francisco and Barcelona, and make Hyderabad a smart city with public Wi-Fi coverage in every nook and cranny.