Kolkata to become first free WiFi enabled metropolis

The city took a tentative step towards becoming the first metropolis in India to be completely Wi-Fi enabled as Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee threw open the facility on Thursday. 

“What we’ve started today, rest of the country will follow. After Kolkata, we will also start this service in Salt Lake, Barasat and Howrah. Within the last week of April, full city and the adjacent areas will be made fully Wi-Fi enabled,” she told the gathering. 

She said that more than 2,000 km of cable has already been laid over the last two years and work will continue till the whole city is brought under the service’s purview.

That the Trinamool Congress is terming this as a reply to ‘Digital India’ became apparent as the party’s national spokesperson Derek O’Brien tweeted: “Let others talk about Digital India. We just delivered Digital Kolkata.”

Senior government officials informed that the plan to turn Kolkata into a Wi-Fi hotspot is being undertaken in collaboration with private telecom player, Reliance Jio. A senior official said, “The services in Kolkata will be provided in all 144 wards of the Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC).”

An officer in know of the project said: “Once the whole city comes under the purview of Wi-Fi, free usage time could be curtailed down to half an hour or less every day. There will be packages on offer for users to avail benefits of the service.”