Bengaluru: Cisco partners with Google for public Wi-Fi

At the inaugural session of the Cisco India summit, Cisco on Monday announced plans to roll out free high-speed Wi-Fi zones across India with gStation.

Cisco will work with Google’s gStation platform to provide communities around the country access to free, open, high-quality public Wi-Fi.

The pilot project has been launched in 25 locations in Bengaluru including locations such as Jayanagar Bus Stand, Udipi Garden among others. The project is being conducted in collaboration with a local ISP.

The company said that by September this year, 200 locations across Bengaluru will be Wi-Fi enabled, followed by another 300 in the second phase.

Talking about the project, Sameer Garde, President, Cisco India & SAARC said, “Moving to high-speed internet access will increase user engagement and benefit millions of users. The success of digitisation and digital citizen services is also closely tied to the proliferation of high-speed internet. The demand for public Wi-Fi hotspots is expected to go up by 100X over the next 3 years, creating new markets for Cisco and our partners.”

Google had tied up with Rail Tel to offer free Wi-Fi in select railway stations about three years ago and is also in a partnership with BSNL.

Sajith Sivanandan, Managing Director and Business Head, Google Pay and Next Billion User Initiatives, India said, “Solving for access is one of the core pillars of our Next Billion Users strategy, and with gStation we have developed a best in class public Wi-Fi solution that provides a high-quality broadband experience to users. The results from gStation’s railway station rollout have been hugely encouraging, and we’re delighted to join hands with Cisco to broaden gStation’s coverage in Bengaluru. The proliferation of public Wi-Fi in India can provide a significant boost to the government’s digital ambitions of ubiquitous connectivity and digital inclusion."