Free Wi-Fi at 19 Indian railway stations has brought 1.5 million Indians online: Google

In celebration of World Wi-Fi Day, Google has released some stats showcasing the success of their project with Railtel to bring free Wi-Fi to railway stations in India. Since launch, Google and Railtel have extended service to 19 cities and claim that 1.5 million Indians have so far availed themselves of the service. Adding that they’ve only hit 20 percent of their expected rollout this year, Google says they’re very positive about the response so far and that it’s been “phenomenal.” They point out that 100,000 people were online within a week of launch at Mumbai Central, but apparently, Bhubaneshwar surpassed that record within a day of launch. In fact, Google says that Tier 2 cities like Bhubaneshwar and Visakhapatnam are seeing the highest adoption rates and the highest data consumption. On average, users in Tier 2 cities consume about 15 times their daily 3G consumption, says Google. Speaking of usage patterns, Google says that people are mostly looking at infotainment, but that a lot of people are looking for and applying for jobs online. A lot of students in Bhubaneshwar also seem to appreciate the service as they’re searching for educational related information. With everybody talking about data caps, throttling and net neutrality, it’s actually nice to see a company get excited about free Internet and high data consumption.