Amma WiFi wires up Anna Square

The next time you are near the iconic Labour Statue on Marina Beach or visiting the memorials of former Chief Ministers C.N. Annadurai, M.G. Ramachandran and Jayalalithaa on Kamarajar Salai, expect your smartphone to beep up, urging you to try the free Internet. It means you are inside the Amma Wifi Zone launched by Chief Minister Edappadi K. Palaniswami on Thursday.

Free for 20 minutes

Inside Amma WiFi Zone, you are assured of free Internet for the first 20 minutes. “Once the user registers his/her name, mobile number and the email ID, the user is given a password to get access,” said Secretary to Information Technology Department B. Chandra Mohan.

A timer displayed on the page keeps count of the usage. Once you have consumed 18 minutes of free data, a page opens to ask whether you want to continue using Internet beyond the initial 20 minutes, on payment of ₹10 an hour.

“If the user wants to pay for the Internet, he or she can do so,” Mr. Chandra Mohan said.

A payment gateway would offer options to make the payment either through net banking or credit and debit cards. Beyond the free 20 minutes, two hours of paid Internet service would be available for users.

J. Kumaragurubaran, Managing Director of Tamil Nadu Arasu Cable TV Corporation (TACTV) Limited, said about 700 users can concurrently use the facility set up in the city. “The average concurrent user count was 20 as on Friday. But, once the word gets around, we expect more users,” he said.

As of 8 p.m. on Friday, a total of 2,410 users had registered for using the facility in five locations across the State.

In Chennai, few people were aware of the WiFi Zone set up till Friday evening. Besides the Labour Statue in Chennai, Amma WiFi Zones have been set up at the Gandhipuram Bus Terminus in Coimbatore, Central Bus Terminus in Salem, Central Bus Terminus in Tiruchi and M.G.R. Bus Terminus, Mattuthavani, Madurai.

A TACTV official said the range of the WiFi Zone would be between 80m to 90m from the access points and the coverage would be 4G and the minimum speed would be 10 MBPS. “There is no bandwidth restriction,” he said.

Keeping tabs

A TACTV Data Centre set up in Nungambakkam for the Amma Wifi project is keeping tabs on the users round the clock.

The State government is planning to set up 50 WiFi Zones across the State.