Free Wi-Fi extended, but buzz fades

KOLKATA: Four more areas of Kolkata will turn into Wi-Fi enabled zones by next month but the excitement over the free access system seems to be fizzling out.
The new public Wi-Fi zones are the stretch from South City to Lords crossing, Rashbehari crossing to Hazra crossing, Medical College to Barnaparichay Mall and the areas around Lady Brabourne College, National Medical College and Don Bosco School.It takes a week to set up power connectivity with access points so the system is likely to be active by end-April or the first week of May, say sources.
Park Street was the first to get 4G-enabled services in February, making Kolkata the first city to have such a free service. Two more zones were added in March — Gariahat-Golpark and the area near Jadavpur 8B bus-stand. Sources in Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) and Reliance-Jio said they are extending the service to four more areas because of the increasing demand for data services.
KMC sources say almost 5 lakh users have availed of free Wi-Fi since it was rolled out at Park Street on February 5. Park Street has around 230 Wi-Fi routers online, allowing 9,200 people to connect to the Wi-Fi network at a time. With a host educational institutions and restaurants located there, downloads increased at a rapid pace. “We have seen that daily downloads are as high as 1,350 gb. Demand is growing so rapidly that at times it is difficult to provide
services due to the huge number of downloads at the same time,” said a KMC official. Given the nature of the downloads, teenagers seem to be doing most of the downloading. “Games and movies are the most popular downloads,” said an official.
But just two months after chief minister Mamata Banerjee launched the Wi-Fi service on Park Street, public enthusiasm — particularly among youths — seems to be waning. College-goers, who were particularly excited about public Wi-Fi prior to its launch, now don't view it as a particularly exciting service. One of the prime reasons is speed, or rather the lack of it.
While official sources claimed that the download speed is between 8 and 10 mbps, users say it is much slower. Students of St Xavier's and Loreto House say the “poor quality of Wi-Fi network” is a major irritant. “When free Wi-Fi was announced, we were all excited. As the days went by, network strength deteriorated and now it is so slow that I can't even use WhatsApp,” said Mayukh Ghosh, a final-year student of St. Xavier’s. When TOI checked the Wi-Fi speed near Flury's, it was 4 mbps.
Some others said public internet was a luxury that Kolkata could do without. “The average user of smart devices, be it mobile, tablet or laptop, already has internet connection. Many have Wi-Fi at home. I don't think public Wi-Fi is a necessity,” said Samridhya Moitra of Calcutta University. Ishani Sen, a Presidency student, agreed with her and said the administration needs to focus on civic issues like sanitation, education roads and drinking water. “I’d be happier if KMC cleaned up the city,” Ishani said.
Network security is another bother. “If everybody starts sharing the same Wi-Fi connection, there are bound to be technical snags. I prefer to pay for a secure service,” said Prasayan Das, an engineering student.
The delay in expanding the Wi-Fi service to other parts of the city hasn’t helped the cause. “The CM had promised free Wi-Fi connectivity across the city in two months but we see no signs of that yet,” said Torsha Chatterjee, an MMBS student at NRS Medical College.