Hyderabad: Making Hyderabad the most active public WiFi network city, the State government on Wednesday commemorated the functioning of 3,500-plus WiFi hotspots. Other than usual buzzing places, the hotspots cover 400 government schools and a few Basti Dawakhanas.
Launched under the Digital Telangana initiative, the government announced that Hyderabad is host to these WiFi hotspots as part of the Hy-Fi project done in collaboration with ACT Fibernet. These hotspots are located in malls, hospitals, public parks, metro stations, public libraries and educational institutions among others. ACT plans to add 500-1,000 more such hotspots.
“We are living in a world of 4G and these WiFi hotspots will help to bridge the digital divide. While the public will definitely benefit, institutions like government schools, Basti Dawakhanas and Urban Public Health Centres can use this service. PHCs can look at e-health and telemedicine more robustly through these hotspots,” said IT Minister KT Rama Rao. He also mentioned that ACT can collaborate with the government in its Digital Health programme that is set to start in Mulugu and Sircilla districts. The work on the hotspots has been on since 2017 when the mapping of the most popular locations was done.
“While the pilot project was for 1,000 hotspots, we realised that it can be expanded to 3,000-plus locations. Pre-pandemic we had four lakh citizen users per month and during the pandemic, it dropped to one lakh but currently, we are seeing 3 lakh users,” said Bala Malladi, CEO, ACT, which has over five lakh ACT consumers in Hyderabad. Of the 57 metro stations in the city, the hotspots are available in 47 stations and Hyderabad Metro Rail MD NVS Reddy said they plan to expand the facility to all stations soon. “We are also considering offering the WiFi in Metro trains as well,” he said.
How to use Wi-Fi
Users will have to login through the “ACT Free Hy-Fi” portal with their phone number and use free internet for 45 minutes at 25 Mbps speed and 1 GB data limit without any cost and can top up further as and when needed. Existing customers of ACT, when they login with their ACT credentials, will get their current home broadband speeds. Post the 45-minute time limit, users will have to pay Rs 25+taxes for one-hour usage and Rs 50+taxes for three hours usage.
Minister at his witty best!
IT Minister KT Rama Rao was at his witty best and showcased his humorous side while interacting with the public as part of commemorating the WiFi hotspots. Rao had a quick 20-minute interaction with nine Hyderabadis from different walks of life and enquired about the WiFi and its usability. While interacting with a doctor at a PHC in SR Nagar, the Minister thanked her efforts and urged her to use the WiFi to provide telemedicine services. He also spoke to an IT employee using the WiFi at Inorbit Mall and joked why he wasn’t working at this time of the day. Showcasing his witty side, the Minister also asked a musician with a grumpy looking hairstyle to either sing a song or cut his hair during the live interaction.
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