RailTel to continue providing free WiFi service at railway stations

A day after Google announced that it is winding down its 'Station' program that provided free WiFi at more than 400 stations in India, RailTel on Tuesday clarified that it will continue to provide free internet services at more than 5,600 railway stations across India.

According to an official statement by RailTel, a Miniratna PSU under Ministry of Railways, Google provided the Radio Access Network (RAN) and Technology support while RailTel provided the physical infrastructure and internet bandwidth at 415 A1, A,C category stations only.

"We entered into a 5 years contract with google for supporting us with setting up  Wi-Fi 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," the statement read.

RailTel also confirmed that it will continue to provide free WiFi at over 5,600 railway stations including the 416 that were commissioned with technical support from Google. "Passengers will not face any inconvenience in terms of Wi-Fi availability.  We will also continue to execute Wi-Fi connectivity at the balance stations," the statement read further.

On Monday, Google had announced that it will discontinue its 'Station' program as mobile data prices have become extremely cheap in India.