After being India’s first city to get mobile service, two decades later, Kolkata will now be termed as the first digital metro city in the country. Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance Jio Infocomm has chosen this city to roll out its Wireless Broadband Access-based Wi-Fi services.
This came to light when the Chief Minister of West Bengal, Mamata Banerjee unveiled the ‘Jionet’ brand Wi-Fi service from Park Street in February. Places such as Loudon Street and Rafi Ahmed Kidwai Road were also networked under the initial phase.
The Chief Minister expressed her happiness using Twitter. She wrote, “All my Wi-Fi friends, I am tweeting using #WiFiKolkata. So proud to be first Wi-Fi Metro city in India. Congratulations to us all.”
4G service in Kolkata
The 230 Wi-Fi routers at Park Street enable 9,200 people to use it at a time. After its launch, around 5 lakh people have used it.
The company had informed that the Wi-Fi service will be free for the people depending on the usage. The services will be charged only after its official launch. The commercial launch will take place after Reliance Jio extends its coverage to the entire city.
After the initial regions, places such asHowrah, Barasat and Salt Lake will be covered. Reliance Jio assured the State that the whole city will be covered by the end of April.According to the Chief Minister, more than 90% of the task was already accomplished.
The company has now announced that four more regions are being targeted to become Wi-Fi zones. They will become Wi-Fi enabled by April end or with the beginning of May.
The new regions where the services will be enabled are Rashbehari crossing to Hazra crossing, South City to Lords crossing and Medical College to Barnaparichay Mall. Besides, the areas around National Medical College, Lady Brabourne College and Don Bosco School will also be covered. In March, areas of Gariahat-Golpark and the region around Jadavpur 8B bus-stand were covered.
The free service of Reliance Jio is a part of its testing experiment. The company has made an investment of Rs. 3,300 crores to offer 4G in West Bengal.
4G service at Wankhede
Reliance Jio will now also be offering its free 4G Wi-Fi services at the Wankhede Stadium of Mumbai during Indian Premier League (IPL)T20 2015. The tournament will start from 8th of April and the first match at Wankhede is scheduled on 12th of April.
Around 30,000 people will be able to benefit from the service. The company has already begun tests to provide the service efficiently for two months. A minimum of 7 matches will be played at Wankhede in this season.
A 4G-enabled tablet or smartphone will be required to use the service. The service will let the users share real-time images and videos of high-quality and even make a video chat.
As of now, Reliance Jio is the only telecom company in the country that has acquired a license to offer 4G services throughout India.