Free Wi-Fi a far cry at several spots

Hyderabad: The Telangana government has activated free Wi-Fi hotspots at 1,000 public locations in Hyderabad but there are too many technical glitches resulting in people either ignoring the facility or just not using it at all.

The Wi-Fi speed ranges from 5 to 10 megabytes per second to allow fast data streaming, and the first 30 minutes is free. But, Shopkeepers, students and tourists facing difficulties to sign-in and use the free Wi-Fi service and also expects more connections to be provided in the city, where the major issue lies around the identification of free Wi-Fi locations. Some cases also show that OTP delay and errors to sign-in for the usage of minimal 30 minutes free Wi-Fi.

Jayesh Ranjan, Principal Secretary, IT, Telangana, said, "Over a lakh of sign-ins are recorded a day. We also have partnered with private firms such as Airtel, Act-Fiber and others to provide free Wi-Fi where a large people gather. We are providing 3,000 connections irrespective of public or private firm, who approached seeking partnership. We just focus on the quantity of sign-ins made from a particular location. Sign-in difficulties and OTP delays would be mere technical glitches."

"30 minutes of free Wi-Fi in public places is a happy thing yet it is difficult to use, as it easily takes 15 minutes to load after sign-in and that page directing to other page takes long. Moreover, we have hourly bus from this station. It would be difficult to browse for the further bus details if we lack internet in our mobile, it would be a worse condition. So, I never depend on free services," said Manish, a student hailing from Mettuguda.

"Charges after the free Wi-Fi usage is inappropriate, for usage of few minutes, my total balance of 34 rupees was finished few months back, from then on, I never dared to used it again," Bhalavanth, a technical assistant from Hanamkonda who was in the city, said.

"Special thanks to Telangana IT Minister KTR for providing Wi-Fi facility in the public areas. I would be happy if the sign-in process is more convenient, as there is a much delay in directing the sign-in details to fill and receiving the OTP to sign in," said a youth Shiva.