The Bangalore City Railway Station on Friday became the first in the railway network to offer BluFi, a combination of Bluetooth and Wi-Fi that will provide passengers with a wealth of information.
The facility was launched by Railtel Corporation of India in collaboration with TeleBrahma, a mobile advertising solutions provider.
Launching the facility, South Western Railway's Bangalore Divisional Railway Manager Sudhanshu Mani termed it another step to enhance passenger comfort. Bangalore being India's IT capital, it deserved to be the first in the country to offer the facility.
While Telebrahma provides the Bluetooth solution, Railtel offers free Wi-Fi facility. Railtel General Manager K. Manohar Raja said: “RailWire is a pilot retail broadband initiative by Railtel to provide affordable, high-quality internet connectivity to the masses.”
To get Internet access, passengers should send their mobile numbers through the Wi-Fi registration portal. The passwords would be sent through SMS. A passenger could use Internet for 45 minutes; if he wished to continue, he had to start a fresh session.
B.R. Ravi, Chief Operating Officer and co-founder of TeleBrahma, said that while Bluetooth worked on all Bluetooth-enabled mobiles, Wi-Fi worked on Wi-Fi-enabled handsets and laptops.
Senior Divisional Commercial Manager Y.N. Babu and Divisional Commercial Manager N. Raghuraman, who piloted the initiative, were present.
