In a move to fast track Centre's ambitious digitisation programme, the Railway PSU RailTel on Thursday announced the launch of its paid wi-fi service plans at 4,000 railway stations across the country. The new plan will enable users to access high-speed internet at these railway stations.
At present RailTel provides free wi-fi service at more than 5,950 stations in the country, and the facility can be availed by anyone with a smartphone and an active connection after an OTP-based verification.
As per the new plan launched by RailTel, any passenger can use up to 30 minutes of free wi-fi per day at 1 Mbps speed. But for a higher speed of up to 34mbps, users will have to choose a plan at a nominal fee.
RailTel Wi-Fi Plans
Among the new plans announced include Rs 10 for 5 GB data in a day, Rs 15 for 10 GB data in a day, Rs 20 for 10 GB data valid for five days, Rs 30 for 20 GB data valid for five days, Rs 40 for 20 GB data valid for 10 days, Rs 50 for 30 GB data valid for 10 days and Rs 70 for 60 GB data valid for 30 days.
“We did a detailed trial run of Prepaid Wi-Fi at 20 stations in Uttar Pradesh and based on the response and detailed testing, we have launched this plan at 4,000+ more stations across India. We intend to launch the prepaid plans for all the stations with our RailWire Wi-Fi this financial year,” RailTel CMD Puneet Chawla said.
Further, the new internet plans have been designed to offer a flexible choice to users as per their needs. The users can easily pay a subscription fee for these plans through various online payment options including net banking, e-wallet and credit cards.
According to Chawla, before Covid-19, more than three crore people were using these internet services monthly. Once the situation normalises and footfall at stations is likely to grow and the PSU expects revenue to the tune of Rs 10-15 crore annually from the paid wi-fi service.
The new high-speed internet facility at the railway stations provides passengers with the wi-fi facility for streaming high definition (HD) videos, downloading movies, songs, games and doing their office work online. The service has so far been very popular among the rural population.
