The free Wi-Fi hotspots introduced by the district administration with the support of various service providers have largely come to the benefit of migrant workers, who were spending a huge sum for data recharge.
Though city residents too are beneficiaries, the majority who now make use of the facility are workers from other States who find the service priceless to interact freely with their friends and relatives at home. Interestingly, most of them own standard android-based mobile phones and make use of the high-end video calling facilities to regularly interact with the dear and near ones.
Gangesh, a construction worker from West Bengal, shares that the free Wi-Fi facility gives him and his friends enough option for entertainment and relaxation after the day’s work. “We have very good social media relations with our natives, friends and relatives. As the service is free, we need not have to bother about paid recharge sparing a big portion of our income,” he said.
Jaydeb, another worker West Bengal, also attests that the free internet gives them all the basic services including the chance to update outdated mobile applications. “All of us have basic internet plans in our mobile phones, but it may not be sufficient to meet the entertainment options like watching movies, downloading games and social media files. As we get standard speed, some of our friends even make use of banking apps for online transactions,” he said.
7 popular hotspots
At present, there are seven popular free Wi-FI hotspots along the Kozhikode beach. District Collector N. Prasanth had initiated the project after he received pleas for the same on his official Facebook page. The district administration has identified a few more locations in the city to extend the Wi-Fi service with the cooperation of the local self-government institutions and telephone service providers.
