Bhubaneswar railway station gets Google’s free public Wi-Fi service

Passengers at Bhubaneswar station will now be able to avail high-speed internet facility as Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu today launched the Wi-Fi service in the Odisha capital. The commuters will be able to easily stream a high-definition video or download a book or a new game for the journey while waiting at the station. The Wi-Fi facility for the visitors and rail users of Bhubaneswar station has been commissioned by RailTel, a railway PSU, in association with Google for providing high-speed state-of-the art world class internet experience to the commuters. Earlier, Google’s Wi-Fi service was launched at Mumbai Central station as part of the Ministry’s plan to equip as many as 100 stations with the facility by the year end. Dedicating the Wi-Fi service to the passengers at the Bhubaneswar station, Mr Prabhu said, “We are soon going to launch Wi-Fi at 16 more stations and will cover 100 stations by the end of this year. This facility at Bhubaneswar will enable the thousands of passengers commuting through this station to enjoy high speed Wi-Fi service. While the Wi-Fi facility for 400 stations is the aim of the Railways, Wi-Fi facility at 100 stations are to be commissioned this year out of which Ranchi, Raipur, Kacheguda (Secunderabad), Vijaywada, Ernakulam, Vishakhapatnam will soon become operational. The work for providing similar services at the remaining stations is expected to be completed by December 2016. The work at remaining stations shall be taken up in 2017. As per arrangement, RailTel with Google as technology partner will provide Wi-Fi for use of passengers at all major stations in the country. While RailTel shall be providing power and fiber network infrastructure, Google shall provide the Radio access Network. Wi-Fi services to passengers shall be provided under ‘Railwire’ the retail Broadband distribution model of RailTel. PTI