Free wi-fi at 3K hot spots in Hyderabad yet to take off

[BhaiJaan]

HYDERABAD: The grandiose plans of the state government to provide wi-fi connectivity at about 3,000 public places fails to materialise till date due to indifferent attitude of the government.

For providing free wi-fi service for certain period of time, the service providers have been demanding relaxation in rules and concessions from the state government.

The state government planned to extend the free wi-fi service to 3,000 places in GHMC limits as part of 100-day action plan. The deadline for 100-day action plan was over two weeks ago.  GHMC has sent the proposals to the state government about the concessions request made by the service providers.

Of the 3,000 wi-fi connectivity planned by IT department in public places, a few service providers have installed wi-fi equipment at about 250 places in the twin cities and are ready for operations but before making them operational, they wanted the state government to relax certain rules and provide concessions.

GHMC officials told Express that the service providers sought two-thirds concessions in restoration charges, waiving of advertisement charges and permission to cut roads for laying the cable lines. They also sought fixing of electrical metres wherever wi-fi spots are set up. 

Power is a major concern for providing uninterrupted service.

As there are no specific rules in giving relaxation or concessions in the GHMC Act, the matter has been referred to the state government last month for taking suitable action on the issue. The matter is still pending with the state government. With an aim to spread wireless mesh across the city, IT department has identified 3,000 locations like parks, bus stands, shopping malls with sizeable footfalls and make them wi-fi enabled.

Public wi-fi is meant for providing basic services like accessing emails, government websites and some social media websites. Presently, there are about 200 wi-fi services in the stretch surrounding Hussainsagar, Hitec city and other places. The providers are offering the service free of cost for the first few minutes, after which it is charged.