Google has announced plans to deploy high-speed Wi-Fi networks at 400 train stations across India as part of efforts to get the next billion Indians online.
In a blog post, Google CEO Sundar Pichai said the company is working with Indian Railways and railway internet service provider RailTel on the project.
The partners aim to cover 100 of the busiest stations in India with Wi-Fi services by the end of 2016, at which point the project is expected to be the largest public Wi-Fi project in the nation, making Wi-Fi available to more than 10 million people per day.
The service will be free to start with, but there is a long term goal of making the project self-sustainable to allow for expansion to more stations and other places outside the rail lines.
“In the past year, 100 million people in India started using the Internet for the first time. This means there are now more Internet users in India than in every country in the world aside from China. But what's really astounding is the fact that there are still nearly one billion people in India who aren’t online,” Pichai said.
“We’d like to help get these next billion Indians online—so they can access the entire web, and all of its information and opportunity. And not just with any old connection—with fast broadband so they can experience the best of the web.”