
Google Announces Plan to Put Wi-Fi in 400 Train Stations Across India - testrun
http://techcrunch.com/2015/09/27/google-announces-plan-to-put-wi-fi-in-400-train-stations-across-india/
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userbinator
I know people usually equate WiFi with "The Internet", but the distinction is
important; in particular, if Facebook's misleadingly-named Internet.org wanted
to "put WiFi in train stations", they could say the same thing, but it'd just
be like one big LAN. In this case, however, it really does appear to be the
full Internet:

"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"

On the other hand, it makes sense for Google since most people use it for the
search engine; "free Google access" is not very useful if you're not able to
actually visit any sites in the search results.

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vmarsy
Yes, it looks more like Google's free WiFi in Starbucks coffees.

By the way, Facebook renamed Internet.org "Free Basics" :
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10277425](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10277425)

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capkutay
Irony of the day: While Google is planning to put Wi-Fi in 400 stations in
India, there is still no Wi-Fi on trains running through Silicon Valley.

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thrownaway2424
I wouldn't be at all surprised if you told me the trains in India are faster,
more frequent, and more reliable as well. Even the Kazakhs would be ashamed of
Caltrain. The only reason we put up with Caltrain is our collective hangover
from the suburban car age.

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quonn
> trains in India are faster, more frequent, and more reliable as well

A laughable claim. Trains in India are slow, late (but probably not more than
in other countries), crowded, comparatively dirty, uncomfortable and they are
often lacking basic safety measures.

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grecy
It's fascinating to see when infrastructure in developing countries surpasses
that of some developed countries.

In Argentina, for example, every single gas station has free wifi. It works
exceptionally well, and is always free.

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pjc50
Interesting. In Peru, every hotel had free wifi, and it was always terrible,
even in relatively pricey hotels.

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kumarvvr
I dont see how wifi in 400 stations is going to help anyone. If the stations
are in well populated areas, then mobile internet should not be a problem in
any case. In rural and lesser developed areas, wifi means nothing to
consumers. The younger generation does have wifi smartphones, thanks to
Chinese companies putting out dead cheap ones. However, of what use is the
wifi in railway stations, I fail to understand.

If the use is for train information or related stuff, the govt. has to
maintain that info on screens and notice boards.

If it's for talking to others, well, that too is of limited use. Most people
wait for maybe a couple of hours before they board onto a train.

If this is to help people waiting in lounges, then I'd rather they (govt.)
monetize it. Especially for those waiting in AC class lounges. In anycase, no
one here really plans for long layovers in railway stations.

I just dont get of what use is wifi in railway stations.

Better thing for the govt. would have been to invite and pay google for
creating a distributed fibre optic network across India, connecting rural
villages, using their expertise in handling large amounts of data.

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raymondgh
I agree with your light gray comment. Coming from San Francisco, I've been
working in India for the past month and have made a few unexpected
observations:

1\. Despite scarcity of 3G and land line data, consumers hardly budget their
usage; when the network is available, it's every-man-for-himself trying to
watch youtube & consume other media

2\. Train loading & unloading is incredibly fast. This can make the station a
hectic place to be, even for locals.

3\. The same Uber vs Local Taxi (In this case, Auto Rickshaws aka Tuk-Tuks)
battle exists here, with Uber charging less than they pay drivers to price out
the competition

4\. Young people, boys and girls, want to be either engineers or doctors.

Train Station Wi-Fi will be great for already-online mobile users to briefly
consume content and call an Uber home, but that's not what's going to 'get the
next billion Indians online to access more opportunities.' People love free
Wi-Fi, but this RailWire contract is a bigger win for Google than anyone else.
Let's see some secondary schools come online!

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deftnerd
This is smart. By offering free WiFi in 400 train stations, they're undoubtly
getting the Right of Way allowances to run fiber along the majority of the
rail system

This will allow them to spread a Google-owned backbone across the country that
they can use as the start of rolling out Google fiber in different cities.

This isn't about free Wifi. It's about free Right of Way for their
infrastructure.

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r0h1n
Where are you picking this up from? The official Google announcement [1] only
talks about Google using RailTel's fiber network?

1 - [http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2015/09/bringing-the-
internet...](http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2015/09/bringing-the-internet-to-
more-indians.html)

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deftnerd
_sigh_ That's what I get for making assumptions and not reading in depth
enough. You're absolutely right, they're going to be leasing existing fiber.

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cconcepts
The practical implications of this will be interesting - I'm expecting to see
"Google WiFi" honeypots at stations that don't have this.

Also a possibility to see folks camped up at these stations hustling on Upwork
etc - particularly in areas where mobile internet is not so reliable.

Also expecting to have EVEN MORE people walk into me as they stare at their
phones...

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theSage
I wonder if this will be unconditional Internet. Over the last few months the
government switched off Internet in two states.

\--edit-- Its back again before someone points it out

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maxwin
Google, please come to Myanmar.

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chatman
They want to snoop on India citizens. PM Modi is selling the country to these
corporations.

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snogglethorpe
Google's action is _infinitely_ better than Facebook's "Facebook for
everybody!" push (another current India-related news item)...

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chatman
But the aims are the same. I'd change "infinitely" with "only slightly" here.

