Railtel to set up Wi-Fi kiosks at A-1 rly stations

Railtel, the telecom wing of the Indian Railways, will soon set up Wi-Fi kiosks at all the A-1 category railway stations. With this, one can use Wi-Fi services beyond the first free half-an-hour by purchasing scratch cards worth Rs 25 for half-an-hour and Rs 35 for an hour.

However, the South Western Railways (SWR) is not sure whether to allow Railtel to set up kiosks free of cost or charge it a fee on the lines of other commercial kiosks at the station.

While a proposal was sent to the SWR three months ago in this regard, the SWR has referred the matter to the Railway board. This, despite the fact that a similar kiosk has been set up free of cost at the New Delhi railway station.

Speaking to Deccan Herald,  Divisional Railways Manager (DRM), Anil Aggarwal said, “We have no objection in letting them set up a kiosk. But since there is no clear cut policy on this, we do not want to take any risk and have sought the Railway Board's guidance.”
On the other hand, Railtel officials say that kiosks would not only help people connect to the Internet at affordable rates but will also make the service popular, which will in turn fetch revenue to the Railways.

More Wi-Fi users

Since the end of October 2014, when Wi-Fi services were introduced at the City Station, the number of users have been increasing every month. From 3,502 uses in October, the number went up to 12,867 in November and 15,807 in December 2014. As many as 10,051 passengers used the facility till January 21.

Shanthi Ram, General Manager, Railtel, said, “The number of passengers using the service is increasing and this is a very good sign. We still need to create more awareness about the service so that more and more users can benefit from it,” he added.

Meanwhile, users say that like any other free Wi-Fi service at public places, there were initial issues when people tried to register first with the mobile number. Problems also surfaced when logging off or entering a password. Officials added that there are several checks that they have to maintain to ensure the service is not misused by anti-social elements.

Raghu M, who recently traveled from Bengaluru to New Delhi, said, “I used the free Wi-Fi service when I was waiting for my train, which was delayed by three hours due to fog in Delhi. “The speed was good once I logged on, but yes, there are too many checks and passwords that one has to keep feeding in. If that can be taken care of, then there are no other issues,” he said.

The peak hour for Internet usage is from 8 pm to 10:30 pm, officials observed. Also, about 4,200 websites are banned as per the orders of the government of India.
DH News Service