Move comes after Maha govt received complaints about difficulty in accessing 'Mumbai WiFi'
Locating a hotspot on one of the world's largest networks of high-speed public internet services may soon be as easy as booking an app-based taxi.
Following complaints from users about the difficulty of locating hotspots set up under the Mumbai WiFi project, the state government will now launch a location-based mobile app to enable people to identify the five WiFi points closest to them.
Last week, Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis had unveiled the first phase of the project will create over 500 WiFi hotspots with around 2,000 access points making Maharashtra the first state to undertake a mass rollout of such services.
The project is being launched using infrastructure like optic fibre and poles created for the Mumbai CCTV surveillance project.
Vijay Kumar Gautam, Principal Secretary of the state Information Technology (IT) department, has noted that most complaints received from users, including those on the system's Twitter handle, pertained to them being unable to locate the hotspots. These complaints were more forthcoming in areas which were not tourist hotspots and where people have to "search for poles on which cameras have been mounted".
The location-based 'Aaple Sarkar Mumbai WiFi hotspots' app will be launched in 10 days, said Vijay Kumar. In the second phase of the ambitious project, which is expected to be launched by May 1, the state plans to cover schools, colleges, bus stops, grounds and the periphery of city's 91 police stations with WiFi access.
In the two phases, a total of 1,200 hotspots will be set up with each having around four access points.
Gautam said that from January 9, when the service was launched, to January 14, the system had registered 2,01,572 logins, and 942.1 GB data was uploaded with downloads totalling 9.9 TB.
"Though we expected the system to be around 75-80 per cent reliable, this percentage is much higher at 97-98 per cent," he added, stating that the total number of hotspots had risen to 585 from 510 on the launch.
"It will take around 30 days for the system to stabilise and for us to check its strength," said Gautam.
in a spot
Vijay Kumar Gautam said that most complaints received from users, including those on the system's Twitter handle, pertained to them being unable to locate the hotspots. These complaints were more forthcoming in areas which were not tourist hotspots where people have to "search for poles on which cameras have been mounted".
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