Kerala invites tender for free Wi-Fi service project

Carrier Wi-Fi

Kerala has invited tender for offering free Wi-Fi services in select public places in the state.

The initiative is part of digital India mission in Kerala. The Kerala government aims to offer free Wi-Fi services for at least one hour.

The government will not be spending funds. However, the state government will offer space for setting up Wi-Fi hotspots.

Recently, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal also announced that the state will invite fresh tenders for the free Wi-Fi project.

The Kerala government will roll out free Wi-Fi in Trivandrum, Kochi and Kozhikode corporations and two panchayaths in all districts and municipalities in the initial part of the launch.

Earlier, the government announced its plans to offer free Wi-Fi in 5,000 government schools as part of IT @ School initiative. The state launched free Wi-Fi in government offices in Malappuram district.

As per the Wi-Fi tender, service provider needs to offer free Internet to access government websites. All websites should be accessible in one minute after opening the browser. The responsibility of the TSP will be to set up Wi-Fi equipments, while the state will provide mobile tower, electricity posts of KSEB and some buildings to set up Wi-Fi.

Meanwhile, BSNL is planning to create Wi-Fi zones in parks, malls, bus stands and railway stations across the state. BSNL Wi-Fi zone will cover 1,113 with private-sector participation.

Rural to boost Internet

India will have 236 million mobile internet users by 2016 and 314 million by 2017. India will have over 500 million internet users by 2017 from over 350 million in June 2015, according to the IAMAI and KPMG.

“With more than 300 million internet users, India has the second largest internet user base in the world. But the internet penetration at 19 percent is poor and limits the potential. The next wave of growth in penetration of internet will be driven by adoption of mobile internet,” said Ashvin Vellody, partner – Management Consulting, KPMG in India.

Rural India will drive the Internet boom. the Active Internet User (AIU) base in rural India was 6.7 percent of the overall rural population of 905 million and accounted for 61 million users in 2014. 4.4 percent of the total rural population used a mobile device to access the Internet against 0.4 percent in 2012.

Baburajan K
[email protected]