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Google's Free Wi-Fi in India Now Live in 100 Railway Stations; 15,000 New Users Connect to Web Everyday (mashable.com)
Last year, Google CEO Sundar Pichai announced the company will be bringing free Wi-Fi to 100 railway stations in India by the end of 2016. The company began, what was the "the largest public Wi-Fi project in the world", in India earlier this year. Today, it announced its free Wi-Fi has reached 100th Indian railway station in the country. From a report: Google announced Thursday its free Wi-Fi is now working at the 100 busiest railway stations in India. Over five million people in the country latch onto Google's free internet service every month, with 15,000 of them accessing the internet for the first time in their lives every day, the company said. The growth of what Google described as "the largest public Wi-Fi project in the world" is in line with company's expectations. Interestingly, Google has partnered with Indian government-run RailTel ISP for free internet service, and it lets users access as much data as they want and visit whichever website they would like. This is in contrast to Facebook's Free Basics, which offered Indians access to select websites. The Indian government earlier this year banned Free Basics on the grounds of net neutrality. Nobody in India has an issue with Google's approach.
Isn't "everyday" an adjective? I think it should be "every day" in the headline.
facebook free basics: HELLO FOREIGN BROWN PEOPLE! we hear youre excited about THE AMERICAN INTENET. well we made an internet FOR YOU. LOG ON and then SURF 5 sites just like a REAL AMERICAN PERSON. SURFING IS WHAT AMERICANS DO. do you UN-DER-STAND?
Google free internet: heres internet, brought to you by a familiar provider. its free. use as much as you want. peace out.
Good people go to bed earlier.
>> Google has partnered with Indian government-run RailTel ISP for free internet service
"Free" for...the users, sure (assuming ticket prices remain constant and there aren't any "station fees" or the like), but who's paying who for what in the "partnership?"
Until you realize that India probably has more than 2500 train stations total, and they're only getting 150 users daily at each station currently.
but extend free wifi in his native India, along with sending most job openings to India.
Way to go google.
I prefer the "u" in honour as it seems to be missing these days.
Power of the Internets
PR0N FTW.
"Every day" means each 24-hour rotation of the globe.
"Everyday" means mediocre.
Proverbs 21:19
how many free wifi stations have YOU opened recently?
jesus christ, some fucking people...
fuck your dirty face
with fifteen rusty old spoons
you raw shit burglar
Cheap labor in India can now log on to the internet.
My city has a lovely central park and mild weather all year 'round. Our park is populated with museums, exotic plants, colorful buskers entertaining visitors from around the world, and free wifi.
We also have lots of homeless people. They swarm to the park with their cell phones and chargers to enjoy YooToob and other amusements. There is an uncomfortable discrepancy between the wealthy visitors and the local homeless. We don't quite know how to reconcile that.
India may also see a shift in the mobile population toward train stations and other sources of free internet. Their large population moving in synchrony could tilt the polar axis.
...omphaloskepsis often...
When I was in India several years ago, it was not possible to get onto the Internet without proof of identity. In order to use a computer at a cyber cafe, I had to provide my passport, whose number was duly recorded in a register along with the beginning and ending times of my session. Considering the terrorism attacks since then, I would expect that practice to continue.
So how is the Google/RailTel access handled? Do people have to provide proof of identity to establish an account? Is it actually open? Encrypted?
Coincidentally, 15,000 is the number of passengers on the roof of each train.
Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
The biggest problem Indian Railways face is damage to ties & corrosion of rails due to open defecation.
http://www.ndtv.com/india-news/indian-rail-is-worlds-largest-open-toilet-jairam-ramesh-494434
And yet they have resources for Wifi? What's wrong with this picture?
That's an extraordinary claim. This requires extraordinary evidence. I doubt you have the evidence to stand behind this. You presented no evidence of this. It reads as if you're saying there are no Indians who understand that it is in Google's interest to continue to offer gratis services which feed a business model built in part on spying thus making their network service a trap.
Digital Citizen
...But I, personally, deeply dislike this trend of providing easy internet access to large swathes of people from the third world without any thought as to how it might impact the rest of the world.
I don't hate brown people, nor do I hate poor people, but what I do hate is the fact that, as time has gone on, I have consistently seen more and more attempted attacks against the various companies I've worked with originate from these impoverished countries.
Call me a racist, classist, white middle class male all you like, just keep in mind I'm also a realist - these countries feature a major portion of their population that lack access proper sanitation, clean drinking facilities, sustainable food crops and education facilities, it stands to reason that if you give them free internet they're going to use it to download easy-to-use, prebuilt tools to perform low risk, low skill hit-and-run attacks against others in the hopes of scraping together enough money to put food on the table for another week.
If Google legitimately wanted to help these people, they'd take their wifi budget and put it towards agriculture or waste management instead. Naturally, Google DOESN'T want to help the people of India, all they want are more eyes viewing youtube ads and more disposable code jockeys to farm American jobs out to.
The internet is great, but for god sake, clean water and public streets free of human excrement are more important matters.
You are paying your privacy and right to allow Google to read your information.