Jayakrishnan Vu
Post News Network
Bhubaneswar, Sept 19: The youth of the capital city have lapped up the free Wi-Fi services launched here a couple of months back. The services have become so popular among the youth that now they want its free availability to be extended from the current 30 minutes to an hour.
Wi-Fi access points in the city have been witnessing considerable crowds of young people, mainly students of the city colleges, accessing the Internet with the help of the Wi-Fi service. At access points such as Orissa University of Agriculture and Technology (OUAT), Biju Patnaik Park and Gopabandhu Academy, the youth seem unmindful of the rush of traffic on the roads as they surf the Internet. At OUAT Square, at least 30 youths can be seen accessing the Wi-Fi services through their smart phones and laptops in the evenings.
As Orissa POST found out, it is mostly downloading of digital entertainment and accessing local information that the youth are using free Wi-Fi services for. There are, however, some who use the services to download educational content from the Internet.
“The Wi-Fi facility offers a data speed of 512 kbps and is a big help to students as many college campuses in the city do not have such a facility,” said Rudrakhya Badu, a student of College of Engineering & Technology (CET) who commutes six km daily to access the free Wi-Fi services.
Ashutosh, a student from another engineering college, said, “Now we are able to easily download copyrighted software, films and music, which are banned in the educational institutes.”
Software Technology Parks of India (STPI) officials said they have completed evaluation of the performance of the Wi-Fi service providers Bharati-Airtel, Reliance Jio and Ortel Communications.
“We are currently analysing user pattern, traffic flow and feedback from the public about the quality of each service provider. A detailed project report will be submitted to the IT department after the study,” said STPI assistant director Debasis Satpathy.
The final decision on the selection of a service provider would be taken by the IT department based on the Request of Proposal (RoP) and then tenders would be floated to roll out a blanket Wi-Fi coverage in the city, he added.
Once the project becomes fully operational, Wi-Fi charges would be lower than the existing rates available through the private telecom providers. An Airtel official said it is currently providing Wi-Fi services free for the first 30 minutes. The company charges `20 for every additional 30 minutes andRs30 for each hour of subsequent use.
Multinational company Deloitte is the technology partner for the Wi-Fi project in the city. It has shared its technical expertise for installation of Wi-Fi infrastructure in the city. Wi-Fi services are also provided at some important public places like Biju Patnaik International Airport for the benefit of travelers.