Google and RailTail work together to make the project ‘Free WiFi for over 400 Indian Railway stations’ happen

• Google first announced a plan to install high-speed wifi at 400 Indian railway stations, in September 2015
• The project went live in January 2016
• As a part of the project, Google and RailTail work simultaneously

New Delhi, August 3, 2017: Free WiFi for over 400 Indian Railway stations Is turning out to be a big hit, and what's better is the fact that Google has claimed, of the WiFi coverage and capacity being better than that in London or San Francisco.

"If you compare this (quality of internet) with Wi-Fi in London and San Francisco, you will find that the Wi-Fi is better in both coverage and capacity," said Gulzar Azad, the Country Head Connectivity at Google India, in an interview with India Today.

The internet, according to Azad is "dynamically configured" in a way that the user is able to run apps like WhatsApp and search pages even when a cap for high-speed is consumed after 30 minutes.

Google, first announced a plan to install high-speed wifi at 400 Indian railway stations, in September 2015. The plan was in support of prime minister Narendra Modi's Digital India campaign.

It was in January 2016 that the project went live, with Mumbai Central station in India's financial capital becoming India's first railway station to provide free, high-speed WiFi.

RailTel Corporation of India, a mini-ratna PSU under the Ministry of Railways, has been tasked with providing fast WiFi, called RailWire, for passengers at A1 & A category railway stations across the country. For this, RailTel has tied up Google, the latter being a technology partner, mentioned the Financial Express report.

Also read: Google rolls out free WiFi service at Udhagamandalam (Ooty) station in Tamil Nadu

"Under this partnership, we had a target of completing 100 stations by the end of December 2016. Surpassing the target, we completed 110 stations by the end of 2016. We now have taken up a target of completing 200 stations by the end of 2017," a RailTel spokesperson told FE Online.

As a part of the project, Google and RailTel are working simultaneously, with RailTel providing the power and fiber network structure for the project, and Google bringing in its expertise on the radio access network front and to enable user experience for mobiles, laptops and other WiFi enabled devices.

RailTail claims that 6 million people use the WiFi network every month.

People who pass through these stations every day now have an access to fast Internet speed to stream, research their destination or download a new book or game for the journey ahead, according to railways.

-by Samiksha Goel of NewsGram. Twitter @goel_samiksha