In line with the shared vision of connecting 1.3 billion Indians to the digital economy, the project has already begun its first phase of implementation.
In the nature’s capital in India, Kochi, Cisco unveiled its plans to roll out free high-speed Wi-Fi zones across India with gStation. As per the strategy, Cisco will work with Google’s gStation platform to provide communities around the country access to a free, open, high-quality public Wi-Fi.
In line with the shared vision of connecting 1.3 billion Indians to the digital economy, the project has already begun its first phase of implementation. By September 2019, 200 locations in Bengaluru will be Wi-Fi enabled, followed by another 300 by in the second phase. The Locations include public spaces like bus stops, hospitals, government offices, etc.
Sameer Garde, President, Cisco India & SAARC, commented, “Moving from slow to high-speed Internet access will increase user engagement and benefit millions of Internet users throughout the economic spectrum. The success of digitization and digital citizen services is also closely tied to the proliferation of high-speed internet. We are excited to partner with Google to bring free, open, high-quality internet access to everyone in India. This also represents a significant growth opportunity, the demand for public Wi-Fi hotspots is expected to go up by 100X over the next 3 years, creating new markets for Cisco and our partners.”
Sajith Sivanandan, Managing Director and Business Head, Google Pay and Next Billion User Initiatives, India, said: “Solving for access is one of the core pillars of our Next Billion Users strategy, and with gStation we have developed a best in class public WiFi solution that provides a seamless, high-quality broadband experience to users. The results from gStation’s railway station rollout have been hugely encouraging, and we’re delighted to join hands with Cisco to broaden gStation’s coverage in the city of Bengaluru. Our approach is to help create abundance where there is scarcity and do it sustainably. The proliferation of public Wi-Fi in India can provide a significant boost to the government’s digital ambitions of ubiquitous connectivity and digital inclusion and serve as a complementary network for telcos and offer users full high fidelity experience across India.
Asked about the role and involvement of the channel partners in the entire project, Sameer Garde answered positively and hinted at involving the partners into this project too.
