Hyderabad Gets More Than 3,500 Free Public WiFi Hotspots; Network To Be Expanded Soon To Metro Trains

Hyderabad has more than 3,500 public WiFi hotspots that provide users free Internet access for 45 minutes daily at 25 Mbps speed and up to one GB data limit.

On Wednesday (4 August), the Telangana State government commemorated the functioning of 3,500-plus WiFi hotspots, covering buzzing places, including 400 government schools and a few basti dawakhanas.

Under the Digital Telangana initiative, the state government set up these WiFi hotspots in collaboration with ACT Fibernet as part of the Hy-Fi project. Around 500 to 1,000 more such hotspots would be added soon, reports Telangana Today.

“We are living in a world of 4G and these WiFi hotspots will help to bridge the digital divide. While the public will definitely benefit, institutions like government schools, Basti Dawakhanas and Urban Public Health Centres can use this service. PHCs can look at e-health and telemedicine more robustly through these hotspots,” said IT Minister KT Rama Rao.

“While the pilot project was for 1,000 hotspots, we realised that it can be expanded to 3,000-plus locations. Pre-pandemic we had four lakh citizen users per month and during the pandemic, it dropped to one lakh but currently, we are seeing 3 lakh users,” said Bala Malladi, CEO, ACT.

He added that among the 57 metro stations in the city, the hotspots are available in 47 stations. Hyderabad Metro Rail MD NVS Reddy plans to expand the facility to all stations soon and is considering offering WiFi in Metro trains.