The AAP government in Delhi is planning to make free WiFi functional in the capital state by February 2016, trying to integrate various transport, power and health services via the internet to make Delhi a smart city. The original poll promises of the AAP was to give free WiFi access, but the new plan is that the service will be given on the basis of limited data usage, and not based on a time limit.
Now the Delhieites have to wait and see to hear from Kejriwal that his government is not able to give Free WiFi because of the objections from the Modi government and the nexus between the central government and L G. Kejriwal & Co is well known and experienced to twist anything in their favour through lies and shame other with shoot and scoot tactics.
“We will not fix a time but will restrict bandwidth. Internet will be charged on the basis of data usage per day. Once the data limit is exhausted, users can avail the service by paying for extra usage. The system will be reset daily,” parliamentary secretary for this job, Adarsh Shastri, said. "International projects were state-sponsored models but ours is dynamic so the government can get revenue from the services," Shastri said. "At present, Shanghai has the largest model which caters to 4.5 lakh people. But with 50 lakh users, we have large avenues for monetisation. We can also categorise the content being accessed etc, which provides a big scope for targeted advertising," said Shastri.
"Delhi is spread across 1,463 sqkm area; we will cover markets, parks, metro stations and high density areas. We will cover 60 per cent of Delhi. Residential areas, green belts, farm belts and rural belts will not be covered. As it is a public Wi-FI, it will be available only at public places. An access point (AP) covers a 50sqm area, so multiple APs will be installed in one area," added Shastri.
Officials said they will look to ensure a minimum internet speed of 512 kbps and the government is considering fixing the data usage to 50 MB per day. “This will be a first-of-its-kind project to be tested on such a large scale. In Delhi, there are around two crore wireless devices which can access the internet. If at any point, 25-30 per cent people access internet, it means 50 lakh users. We can also categorise the content being accessed, which has a big scope for targeted advertising,” officials said.
By Premji
