As a part of Prime Minister Modi's Digital India initiative, the Indian Railways have partnered with Google to provide Wi-Fi broadband facility to passengers at major railway stations across the country. This Google RailTel initiative was launched in January 2016 and till date has reached 140 stations across India. Their lofty aim is to reach 400 stations by 2018.
Under this initiative, RailTel, a subsidiary of the government of India provides the high speed network via Fiber while Google sets up the wireless infrastructure and provides tech support. The speeds on offer range from 20-40Mbps for 30 minutes after which they are gradually reduced in order to manage bandwidth.
The India Today Tech had the opportunity to experience Google's RailTel initiative first hand at Nizamuddin Railway station. We also interviewed Gulzar Azad -- head of connectivity, Google India -- who spoke about the partnership with RailTel, the challenges faced in bringing high-speed Wi-Fi to 140 of India's major railway stations, what Google and RailTel have learnt along the way and the road ahead for this ambitious initiative.
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