Google has unveiled plans to provide free wi-fi at 100 railway stations in India by end of 2016. The first station to get free wi-fi will be Mumbai Central and the facility will have a high capacity in order to allow users to stream HD video, which is a problem even with the standard broadband model. Google expects 10 million users to log in every day by the end of 2016.
From the user point of view, anything free is welcome, but the issue here is how long will free wi-fi continue and will Google be able to build revenue sources to support this facility? Free wi-fi is the norm at many airports but there are limits because somebody has to foot the bill. The general way of going about it is to first entice users and then offer them higher speeds for a fee. This does not always work and once the general speeds start falling people begin to log out. Secondly, travellers rarely have the time of patience to make payments or go through security checks online and the number of people who desperately wish to access the net is low. Google might be happy with the large number of users in the short-term. In the long-term it has to generate revenue or shut down.
