India’s biggest public Wi-Fi network, and among the world’s largest, went live at 500 dedicated hotspots across Mumbai on Monday, Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis said.
“Happy to dedicate Phase 1 of MumbaiWiFia For this instance, 500 Hotspots go live across various locations in Mumbai,” Fadnavis said in a tweet.
He added that while MumbaiWiFi is India’s largest public WiFi service and one of the biggest globally and another 700 hotspots will be active by May 1 – which is celebrated as Maharashtra Day.
“As committed, 1,200 WiFi hotspots will be active by May 1, 2017. We will also monitor the progress on connectivity and speed,” Fadnavis added, after the first phase went active and became accessible to the people.
During the trial period between January 2-8, around 23,000 users signed up in Mumbai and downloaded more than 2TB (TetraByte) data, which Fadnavis termed as “a major aspect of digital empowerment in the state”.
The WiFi – free with unlimited usage till January 31 – is now available at the offices of Mumbai Police Commissioner, Vidhan Bhavan, KalaNagar in Bandra, Bombay High Court and other prominent public places in the city and suburbs.
The Maharashtra Information Technology Corporation (MITC) has collaborated with US-based companies like Hewlett Packard and Fortinet for the technical aspects.
The Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Litd is the bandwidth provider and Larsen & Toubro is the systems integrator.
Prior to this, Mumbai entered the public WiFi era with hotspots at certain important railway stations for commuters, while some private locations like malls, cinemas, restaurants, hotels offered limited free WiFi access to their patrons.
The latest move by the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party-Shiv Sena combine comes as Mumbai and nine major civic bodies, plus 26 Zilla Parishads prepare to go for elections next month, the dates of which are due to be announced shortly.
Mobile commerce in India
The number of consumers shopping online is going to cross 100 million this year from 69 million in 2016 due to the rise of digital natives, better logistics, broadband and internet-ready devices.
The number of consumers, who will purchase online, is expected to cross 100 million by 2017 from about 69 million in 2016.
The rise of digital natives, better infrastructure in terms of logistics, broadband and Internet-ready devices will fuel the demand in e-commerce, according to an Assocham-Resurgent India study.
As per the findings of the study, Bengaluru has left behind all other cities in India shopping online in 2016. While Mumbai ranks second, Delhi ranks third in their preference for online shopping.
The study revealed that Indian e-retail looks even more promising which is up from $3.59 billion in 2013 to $5.30 billion in 2014 (an increase of 48 percent), by the end of 2018, it is expected to touch $17.52 billion (with growth of 65 percent).
In 2017, mobile commerce will become more important as most of the companies are shifting to m-commerce. Mobile already accounts for 30-35 percent of e-commerce sales, and its share will jump to 45-50 percent by 2017.
There is a surge in the number of people shopping on mobile across India with tier II and III cities displaying increased dominance. 50 percent of traffic is coming from mobile and a majority of them are first time customers.
The study said the total retail sales in India will likely increase from the $717.73 billion during 2014 to touch $1,244.58 billion by 2018. The total retail sales is growing at an impressive rate of 15 percent.
IANS