Google's free wifi at railway stations a big hit
Over 1.5 million Indians are enjoying its high-speed wifi network experience across 19 railway stations in the country, especially in tier II cities, Google today said.   Â
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Last week, the technology giant rolled out its wifi service in four major stations -- Sealdah, Lucknow junction, Lucknow and Gorakhpur Junction -- taking the total number of stations with such facility to 19, it said in a blog post.    Â
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"While we are only at approximately 20 per cent of the rollout schedule for this year, the response has been phenomenal... At this scale, this project is a shining example of bridging the digital divide," Google said in the post.    Â
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A big chunk of the country continues to access the Internet on a narrow band network, limiting experience of Internet to basic activities, it added.   Â
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"Easy and affordable access to full fidelity broadband network continues to be a challenge in India and is throttling the economic impact that Internet can have," it noted.    Â
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Google saw 1 lakh users connect to the network within a week of launch at Mumbai Central, and as it started rolling out the network at more stations, it saw "an exponential jump in the consumption of the network".   Â
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It also noted much higher consumption of data in tier II cities where access to high-speed broadband remains a challenge.   Â
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"Per capita consumption of data in tier II cities far exceeds use we see in tier I cities," it said.   Â
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It further said even though users are in transit, the average consumption per user on the network is 15 times the data they would consume on a 3G pack in a day, which today is the most dominant means of access to the Internet in India.   Â
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While the primary usage is focused on infotainment, Google is seeing a lot of users in tier II cities using the network to look up and apply for jobs online.