Google announced on Sunday its plan to install public Wi-Fi in 400 train stations in India. Once installed, it would provide a fast Internet connection to at least 10 million passengers per day.
"I'm very proud to announce that it's the train stations of India that are going to help get millions of people online. In the past year, 100 million people in India started using the Internet for the first time. This means there are now more Internet users in India than in every country in the world aside from China. But what's really astounding is the fact that there are still nearly one billion people in India who aren't online," Google CEO Sundar Pichai wrote in a blog post.
Google believes that by providing Wi-Fi to Indians, people will be able to access the entire web and expand their knowledge and opportunity.
The tech giant would be partnering with railway operator Indian Railways and RailTel for the Wi-Fi connection. The speed of the Internet is expected to be faster than the existing connection that India has, allowing the passengers to watch videos, research and download content.
"We think this is an important part of making the Internet both accessible and useful for the more than 300 million Indians already online, and the nearly one billion more who are not," Pichai added.
In the next few months, some of the train stations would have Wi-Fi and by 2016, the project is expected to complete the installation in 100 railway stations.
Google is not the only tech company that has volunteered to help connect people to the Web. As HNGN previously reported, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg committed to expanding free Internet access to refugee camps during his talk to the United Nations forum.
