New Delhi, June 27: The availability of free Wi-Fi facility at railway stations is a boon for commuters across the nation. The free Wi-Fi service is being provided by RailTel- the telecom arm of Indian Railways in partnership with Google. At present, the Indian Railways is offering free public WiFi service at more than 700 stations across the country and covers around 8 million people every month.

RailTel has taken a lead in providing fast Wi-Fi for the use of passengers at Railway stations and for this, it has roped in Google as the technology partner for setting up fast Wi-Fi network to provide fast Wi-Fi to millions of passengers every day.

Designed to offer users the best Internet experience, Railwire Wi-Fi will be available to any user who has a working mobile connection on a smartphone. In a recent tweet, RailTel said, “RailTel is Committed to Connecting the Unconnected. 700+ railway stations is now RailWire Hot-spot bringing a superlative #Wifi experience to 8 million people every month”.

The free wifi service, launched as a key initiative under Digital India programme was kicked off from Mumbai Central station in January 2016, and Dibrugarh in Assam has become the 400th station to go live today, Google informed. Within a year of its launch, a total of 100 stations were covered under the scheme.

The service now covers 407 urban railway stations and 298 rural stations. Reports inform that the service which offers thirty minutes of free access to the internet, saw users consuming about 350 MB of data per session on an average, with a majority of the users being in the 19-34 age group. RailTel said that the monthly data consumption on the free network has reached over 7000 TB.

Internet access has now become an important requirement in day-to-day working. Reports inform that all railway stations which comprise of nearly 8,500 across the country, including those in rural and remote areas will be equipped with Wi-Fi facilities at an estimated cost of Rs 700 crore ($110 million).

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Jun 27, 2018 02:31 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).