The Delhi government’s ambitious free Wi-Fi internet service will roll out soon.
To start with, over 500 locations across East Delhi will be made high-speed Wi-Fi zones by the end of this year allowing access to free internet till a pre-determined daily limit, the Delhi government announced on Friday.
The implementation of free Wi-Fi in Delhi will be carried out by the Department of Information Technology (DIT) and laying of optic fibre will carried out by the Public Works Department.
“The government has decided to lay down a common fibre-optic network across the city to make it possible for Delhiites to access the web in gigabit speed,” Dialogue and Development Commission (DCC) chairperson Ashish Khetan said during a press conference.
Smart City pre-requisite
The government plans to soon float a tender for the services. “The tender will have details of free data usage limit. But at this point, I can say that the benchmark would be average data usage by an individual per day as defined by TRAI,” Mr. Khetan said.
These hot-spots will cater to around 1.2 lakh people at any given moment.
Mr. Khetan said that 3,000 more access points will be added if needed.
Giving details of how the project will be executed, Mr. Khetan said that the PWD is the nodal agency for the optic-fibre project, which is an essential pre-requisite for a smart city.
The project, which he described as 'fibre to home', will ensure that people manage to access internet in gigabit speed.
“Such high-speed internet was imperative towards bringing definitive changes in the areas of education, health, power, water, public transport and security,” Mr Khetan said.
Free internet service and creating hotspot zones in the city was a poll promise of the Aam Aadmi Party.
