Tech giant announces plans to install Wi-Fi in 400 Indian train stations

folarin okunola

September 29, 2015 2:03 PM

This is the first big project for Sundar Pichai as CEO of Google, which will also be holding a major hardware event later this week.

A map of the first 100 train stations that will get high speed Wi-Fi

Google CEO, Sundar Pichai has announced details on a new plan to bring more Indian residents online, noting that there are over a billion Indian residents that aren’t connected.

The plan? India’s rail system. The idea is to bring Wi-Fi to its 10 million rail passengers a day. Pichai shared Google’s plans while sharing his own story about his days using the Chennai train station to get to school.

“We’d like to help get these next billion Indians online—so they can access the entire web, and all of its information and opportunity. And not just with any old connection—with fast broadband so they can experience the best of the web. That’s why, today, on the occasion of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to our U.S. headquarters, and in line with his Digital India initiative, we announced a new project to provide high-speed public Wi-Fi in 400 train stations across India,” Pichai said.

All the big tech companies in Silicon Valley have been getting a visit from Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, including Facebook.

Each company also seems to each have its own ideas on how to increase Internet availability in India and Google’s idea definitely seems unique.

READ: Tech giant set to launch new smartphones at September 29 event

Google will be working with Indian Railways and RailTel on the initiative, starting with 100 stations.

This is the first big project for Sundar Pichai as CEO of Google, which will also be holding a major hardware event later this week.

This project, along with Google’s Android One project, should help the next generation of Indian population get – and stay – online.

folarin okunola