The Hindu : Front Page : Mysore railway station becomes Wi-Fi enabled

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Friday, Jan 29, 2010
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Mysore railway station becomes Wi-Fi enabled

Special Correspondent

It is said to be the first such facility launched in a railway station under PPP
Railtel has provided similar facilities at a few railway stations elsewhere

MYSORE: The Mysore railway station on Thursday became Wi-Fi enabled. The facility was launched by the Divisional Railway Manager B.B. Verma who said this would benefit tourists as also the IT professionals whose number was on the rise here. This is reckoned to be the first such facility launched in the country under the public-private partnership (PPP) model.

The facility will enable Net users to browse the Internet broadband using their personal laptop computers on platform numbers one and two and the retiring rooms as also the waiting rooms. The facility will provide seamless connectivity in about 90 per cent of the railway station premises.

The facility is being powered by Tomizone, a New Zealand-based company that operates a global service platform to provide wireless broadband service to consumers.

Senior Divisional Commercial Manager Anup Dayanand Sadhu said the railway station has set an example with its Wi-Fi value-added services considering that tourists and business travellers who use the station has increased. Drawing attention to the fact that Mysore being ranked number 4 in the top 31 must-see places listed by the New York Times, he said that the number of domestic as well as international tourists visiting the city was on the rise and the Wi-Fi facility would enable them to spend their time productively while waiting in the station for their trains.

Mr. Sadhu said though Railtel has provided similar facilities at a few railway stations, Mysore is the first to provide Wi-Fi under the PPP model. Mr. Verma said the authorities would monitor the response to the facility, and depending on the usage and its popularity, would extend it to other major railway stations in the Mysore Division.

He said the revenue-sharing model was yet to be worked out but said the railways will not accrue any revenue in the first six months but a revenue sharing model would be evolved subsequently depending on customer usage. Mr. Verma said the Railways has not invested anything except providing the venue to install the facilities to make the premises Wi-Fi enabled.

However, the Railways has insisted on security and user identity would be recorded as per the Department of Telecommunication laws and cyber laws.

But no private information, including credit card and other financial transactions, would be monitored or recorded and hence, passengers could rest assured of the security aspect, said Girish Hiremath, country head of Tomizone.

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