Wi-Fi Hotspots: Internet Penetrates Deeper Into Indian Psyche

Just as the world was celebrating the onset of 2014, which was to change many things for India with general elections to be held close to the middle of the year; some things were fast changing for an Indian city. This cosmopolitan space, most often referred to as the IT capital of India, was setting up its upmarket area for a date with technology.

Was it love at first sight? Yes, and looks like the courtship is doing a lot of good to technology and the city too. The name of the city, as you may have guessed by now, is Bengaluru. The first ever city to have opened up to the tech sector many decades ago, also had the honour of being a fit place to experiment with free Wi-Fi hotspots being installed at one of the prime locations. Calling it the Times Square of the city may be a cliché but hey, we love it!

Mahatma Gandhi road, popularly known as MG Road for those who are familiar with it, became the first space to open free Wi-Fi for anyone in the central area, allowing the browser a time frame of three hours, and download up to 50 MB of data. The thrilled users said the browsing speed made them more than happy since it was not patchy at all, much to the chagrin of those who wouldn’t believe that government can do anything right!

Now that the first spot has been taken, the race is on for the second place. The competition is between Pune and Hyderabad. And things have gotten to a very interesting level. Hyderabad is somewhat caught in the Telangana web and may heed to the pressure of politics which may ignore the modern image of the city to sorting out its own innards. As far as Pune is concerned, things would be a cakewalk since the city has already turned into a hot destination of IT companies since last few years. But hey, what’s wrong with dreaming and hoping to see it being a reality?

Futuristically, Pune wouldn’t want to lose out on this opportunity to create a ‘suave’ image for self since Bangalore is reaching near-saturation point as far as accommodating IT companies is concerned. This apart, the central leadership including Prime Minister Narendra Modi, has been looking at creating alternative cities which are as good as any cosmopolitan city for new businesses to grow in.

What would be a better chance than introducing WiFi to the people of smaller cities? Internet penetration into Indian cities has been growing at a fast pace. To leverage on this neo-economical growth, India needs to open up to the demand by its citizens, following the trend of internet usage.

Among the cities, analysts say those with WiFi connectivity project a professional image for businesses to grow roots in. By that count, Bangalore, Delhi, Pune, Mumbai, Kolkata, and Chennai have decent WiFi hotspots in some prominent areas. While some cities have kept it free, some have opted to offer paid services.

Every other Indian state, including Gujarat, are vying to be in the ‘hotspot’ area starting with bigger cities, and move in to cover almost all places where internet connectivity is good and towers can be installed without causing any ecological harm.

Private companies like TATA and Vodafone have evinced interest in setting up the infrastructure for WiFi connectivity in Indian cities. TATA plans to have 3000-4000 WiFi hotspots in cities before the end of 2015, making it an ambitious project on part of the company.