Free WiFi at Indian Railways stations: What next after Google ends partnership? Answer from horse's mouth

Will you continue to get FREE WiFi available at stations of Indian Railways after the end of Google partnership with the national transporter? This is the big question many are asking! Here is the answer from the horse's mouth. A day after Google announced that it is gradually winding down its free public WiFi Station programme, currently available at 415 railway stations in India, Indian Railways has assured the continuation of the free WiFi services at these stations. The Railways contract with the search engine ends in May 2020.

Google had said that it will work with the Indian Railways and Railtel Corporation to help them with existing sites so they can remain useful resources for people.

What Indian Railways said?

Railtel, a Miniratna PSU under the Ministry of Railways, in a statement said: "We entered into a five-year contract with Google for supporting us with setting up WiFi at 415 stations only and the contract is going to expire on May 2020. However, RailTel will continue to provide uninterrupted WiFi service, with same speed and network quality, to passengers at these 415 stations after May 2020 as well. We sincerely value the support we received from Google in this journey," it said as per a report in IANS.

The railways PSU further said that their effort in transforming Railway stations into platform for digital inclusion will continue, and RailTel will continue to provide free WiFi at 5,600 plus railway stations across the country, including the 415 stations which were commissioned with the technological support from Google. "Passengers will not face any inconvenience in terms of WiFi availability. We will also continue to execute WiFi connectivity at the balance stations," the RailTel said.

FREE public WiFi by Google

Google launched its Station initiative in India in 2015 to bring fast, free public WiFi to 415 of the busiest railway stations in the country by mid-2020.