BSNL launches free Wi-Fi facility at Udwada Village, plans to deploy 1 lakh wi-fi hotspots by 2018

State-owned telecom operator Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) has launched free Wi-Fi facility at Udwada Village, Valsad District, Gujrat under Sansad Adarsh Gram in the presence of telecom minister Manoj Sinha and Smriti Zubin Irani, Minister for Information and Broadcasting.

"Under Sansad Adarsh Gram Yojana Rs.16.48 Lakh is allotted for carrying out Wi-Fi by BSNL in Udwada Village. With the launch of Wi-Fi service in Udwada Village, a population of 6000 citizens in a village as well as surrounding area will be benefited," Irani said.

She said, "Citizens of Udwada and surrounding area will be able to use Unlimited Internet Data and Udwada Village has become Digital Village. Udwada village has been adopted by me under Sansad Adarsh Gram Yojana. This is the vision of Prime Minister for strengthening or villages and make effort for extending the benefit of digital India to the last miles."

Meanwhile, the telco is undertaking the project for providing 25,000 Public Wi-Fi Hotspots at Telephone Exchanges of BSNL in rural areas using BSNL fiber.

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"BSNL is also deploying 35,000 Wi-Fi Hotspots on PAN India basis to improve the Broadband penetration with 2G/3G mobile data Wi-Fi offload solution. Under this project till date more than 7700 Wi-Fi hotspots have been installed," Minister of State for Communications, Manoj Sinha said.

The telco is also planning to deploy 1,00,000 wi-fi hotspots across the country by 2018-end through a combination of models, including revenue share with partners as well as BSNL's own capital expenditure model.

As many as 18,000 hotspots have already been deployed, BSNL Chairman and Managing Director Anupam Shrivastava said.