Metro commuters to enjoy high-speed and free Wi-Fi services by year-end

Delhi Metro commuters will be able to surf the Internet seamlessly while travelling as free Wi-Fi facilities are likely to be in place by the end of the year.

Techno Sat Comm announced on Wednesday that the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) has awarded it a 10-year contract for providing free Wi-Fi services to commuters. Confirming the report, the DMRC said a memorandum of understanding was signed in October.

PING Network will partner with Techno Sat Comm as the main licensee for providing content and the latter will invest Rs.250 crore to set up the infrastructure.

Metro passengers across the National Capital Region will be able to experience high-speed broadband by logging onto the Internet via a dedicated mobile application. The app will also display the location, the approach and destination stations on a real-time basis and help navigate between different lines.

“The project will potentially be India’s largest platform to serve content to passengers and work with advertisers. We are keen to reach the Delhi Metro’s 2.75 million passengers and revenue shall be earned through advertising,” said Techno Sat Comm director Jagdip Rana. The company said Wi-Fi service will ensure a minimum speed of 50 Mbps (three times 4G), while the maximum speed could potentially go up to 1.6 Gbps.

The company, which already runs Wi-Fi services on Delhi-Howrah Rajdhani Express, added that it will use a solution deployed on super-fast rail networks in Europe to deliver high speed broadband Internet experience in this project .

“We have adapted the technology to India keeping in mind adverse weather conditions including heat, dust, heavy rain, vibration of trains and large passenger loads,” said Nirav Dave of Techno Sat Comm.

PING Network will build front-end customer interface as well as the content pipe.

Techno Sat Comm said it already has a significant experience from the pilot project on the Delhi-Howrah Rajdhani Express.

“The Rajdhani Wi-Fi, despite being a pilot project with lower bandwidth, sees close to 250 users of the 1,000 passengers on the train at any time,” Mr. Dave added.