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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)

Posted by msmash on from the good-will-and-data dept.

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.

3 of 46 comments (clear)

  1. the services are easy to differentiate. by nimbius · · Score: 4, Insightful

    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.

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    Good people go to bed earlier.
    1. Re:the services are easy to differentiate. by WindBourne · · Score: 3, Insightful

      BTW, it is not foreign brown ppl. That is where the new google CEO is from. He is simply shutting down projects in America and transferring them to India.

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      I prefer the "u" in honour as it seems to be missing these days.
  2. Re:oh good; kill projects like google fiber by swb · · Score: 2, Insightful

    I'd like to know how successful a "global" company like Google would be without the political weight of the American economy, diplomacy and ultimately, military behind it.

    Google owes its success globally to the extent that it can count on the American government to back it up overseas, otherwise it would be just another listening post and censorship arm of a bunch of third world kleptocracies and dictatorships.