After launching its first free WiFi service from Mumbai Central station in January 2016, Google has announced the completion of the free service at 400 railway stations across India in collaboration with RailTel, the telecom arm of Indian Railways. Dibrugarh in Assam has become the 400th railway station to get the free WiFi service from Google, the company said. Indian Railways had signed an MoU with Google in December, 2015 to launch the service, which offers thirty minutes of free internet access. The average data consumption per user per session has been recorded around 350MB. The project has succeeded in its mission of bringing connectivity to millions of unconnected Indians, leveraging on the nationwide optic fiber network backbone created by RailTel. Within the first year of the project’s launch, 100 of the busiest railway stations across India were brought online, enabling 15,000 people to experience the internet for the first time every day, it said. “With over 8 million monthly unique users connecting to the network, this is a lighthouse project for India and every growing economy that is looking to bring the benefit of connectivity to everyone in their country,” Google India Director Partnership Next Billion Users K Suri said. K Manohar Raja, Executive Director (Enterprise Business) at RailTel said the endeavour has been to bridge the experience divide by providing one of the fastest public WiFi networks in the world. Source: ET Online
Read More »Phocuswright India 2017 sees over 400 attendees
The second edition of Phocuswright India 2017 held from Feb 28-Mar 2 saw leaders from travel technology and travel-related segments gather in Gurugram where the latest trends in the industry were discussed, new talents nurtured and networking opportunities forged. Simon Lehmann, President, Phocuswright informed that over 400 participants were welcomed and added, “We saw a great turnout that could have been better, but it was a good response nonetheless. The sessions on Centre Stage that featured the likes of Google, Yatra and Paytm were effective crowd pullers and saw a lot of valuable exchange of ideas and information on the new travel technology trends.” Some of the highlights of the event include discussions on the future of business travel, alternate stays and the growth of budget accommodation, along with interviews with Expedia, Uber, Makemytrip & Ibibo, Booking.com, to name a few.
Read More »