Mumbai enters public Wi-Fi era with 1,200 hotspots

“India's public Wi-Fi network, and the Wi-Fi system in the world, with 1,200 dedicated hotspots across the city. During the trial period between 2nd & 8th January, around 23,000 users signed up in Mumbai and downloaded more than 2TB (Terabyte) data, it is a major aspect of digital empowerment in the state of Maharashtra and now it is using up to 515 terabyte downloads, with 35 lakh active users at present,” Principal Secretary Vijay Kumar Gautam said.


The Maharashtra Information Technology Corporation (MITC) has collaborated with Hewlett- Packard and Fortinet for the technical aspects. The Mahanagar Telephone Nigam is the bandwidth provider and Larsen & Toubro is the systems integrator. Prior to this, Mumbai entered the public Wi-Fi era with hotspots at certain important railway stations for commuters, while some private locations like malls, cinemas, restaurants, hotels offered limited free Wi-Fi access to their patrons. “It is necessary to build ‘Human Capital’ along with Smart City as we require connectivity with hearts rather than flyovers in future,” observed Vijay Kumar Gautam, Principal Secretary, Information Technology Department of Maharashtra Government.

“Mumbai citizens are now experiencing free high-speed internet via the free Wi-Fi services offered by various like Railway Stations, Google, politicians at various locations. Department of Information Technology (DIT) has bigger plans to get more than 1,700 in 2017 which will be charged after first 45 minutes for the first user. It is unlimited for using the G2C services. The speed of getting new locations with free Internet services seems like the 4G internet speed on Wi-Fi at railway stations and looks like within the next few years every railway station and major public location will have this service. Not all Wi-Fi will last long. Still few reliable like on Mumbai Railway Stations should be and are good for the Mumbai people right.”