IT department sanctioned Rs 50 crore free Wi-Fi hotspot project in Kochi

KOCHI: The Government promise to provide free Wi-fi hotspots in major public places get boast as IT department has sanctioned fund for the project. In a Government Order issued by IT secretary M Sivsankar on April 2, sanction has provided to establish 2000 Wi-Fi hotspots at bus stands, government officer, railway station, parks, libraries.

According to an officer with Kerala State IT Mission (KSITM) who doesn't want to reveal his identity, last year, the government has approved establishing 1000 Wi-fi hotspots across the state. However, KSITM requested the government to sanction additional 1000 Wi-FI hotspot connection as well. Approving the proposal, the government agreed to provide a fund of Rs 50 crores for the realisation of the project. "We expect to realise the project by installing Wi-Fi hotspot connection in all railway stations, major bus station, district hospital and important government office by the end of 2018 or in 2019. We are finalising the places where the Wi-Fi hotspots have to be installed," he said.

The government has sanctioned fund for Operations and Maintenance three years, the expense for internet bandwidth each year, cost for installing additional access points, site preparation expenses, administrative expenses and integration with third-party software.

According to officials, Wi-Fi hotspots would be installed by Cisco Technology. People can access 300 MB internet per day from the hotspots using smartphones and laptops. Similarly, the government websites supporting e-governance and m-governance will be having free unlimited access. The service also provided at all major tourist sports for assisting foreign and domestic tourist arriving in Kerala.

Similar to Kerala government, the India government also have launched BharatNet project which intends to provide free Wi-Fi hotspots across Kerala. Telangana government is planning for a similar project to be realised by June this year. In Bengaluru BMTC buses to have free Wi-Fi access. Tamil Nadu, Delhi and Maharastra government also have a similar project in the pipeline.