RailTel launches paid plans for Wi-Fi at 4,000 stations

In a move towards monetisation of its internet services at railway stations, state-run RailTel Corporation of India has launched high speed paid Wi-Fi service at 4,073 stations from which it expects to earn an annual revenue of Rs 10-15 crore once Covid-related travel restrictions ease and footfall at stations becomes regular.

RailTel has started prepaid plans for using its Railwire Wi-Fi facility, which offers 30 minutes of free Wi-Fi per day at 1 mbps speed and a nominal fee for availing a higher speed of up to 34 mbps. The fee ranges from Rs 10 for 5GB per day, Rs 15 for 10 GB per day, Rs 20 for 10 GB/5 days, Rs 30 for 20 GB/5 days, Rs 40 for 20 GB/10 days, Rs 50 for 30 GB/ 10 days and Rs 70 for 60 GB/30 days. This can be paid online through net banking, wallet and credit card. Currently, internet service is available at 5,950 plus stations across the country and is accessible to anyone with a smartphone and an active connection.

“RailTel will launch the prepaid plans for all 5,950 Wi-Fi-enabled stations across the country this financial year,” Puneet Chawla, chairman & managing director, RailTel, said at a virtual press interaction. The listed mini-ratna public sector enterprise under IR, providing bandwidth, Internet and value added IT services, entered the market in February 2021 with a `819-crore initial public offering, as part of the government’s divestment programme.

RailTel has a current order book of Rs 4,000 crore from projects alone and with the inclusion of telecom services and data centre services, this would amount to an assured revenue of Rs 7,000 crore in the next few years, according to Chawla. The company also has plans to earn over Rs 60 crore from its content on demand initiative which will be available in all premium, express, mail and suburban trains of IR. Besides this, the company has won an order worth Rs 105.82 crore from IR and received an advance purchase order amounting to Rs 25.46 crore per annum from Bharat Sanchar Nigam for commissioning of the point-to-point links.