Ola launches offline booking on its app

In a bid to ensure continuous access to mobility, Ola today announced the launch of ‘Ola Offline’ across key metros in India. As the name suggests, the feature will enable customers to book a cab even without Internet on their smartphones.

Ola has been piloting the feature in smaller towns and cities since June this year. Learnings from these markets, need for access to mobility even in the absence of Internet connectivity and constraints in the current data and connectivity infrastructure, has paved way to the launch of this innovative feature for India.

Starting with four metro cities, Ola plans to roll out the feature in rest of the cities, over the coming weeks.
Mobility is a critical cog in the wheels of a developing nation and citizens should have access to convenient and affordable solutions at all times.

Although over 46 crore people in the country today have access to internet, it still only accounts for 34 percent of the population. A vast majority of the populace even today, struggles to get adequate data connectivity at all times.

In India, users are more inclined towards prepaid mobile service, making them more vulnerable to running out of data. Spotty 3G and 4G coverage also account for a fair amount of data connectivity issues, even in Tier 1 cities.

With the launch of ‘Ola Offline’, Ola is aiming to reach out to these people with an endeavor to provide seamless and consistent access to mobility, at all times. The feature will be available across all cab categories viz. Micro, Mini, Prime and Lux.

Speaking on this innovative feature, Ankit Bhati, CTO & Co-Founder, Ola said, “As the country ushers in the digital revolution with projects such as Digital India and Smart Cities, the way users experience technology is changing.

While connectivity continues to be an infrastructural challenge, we are constantly building innovative technology that helps fill the gap, and the launch of the ‘Offline feature’ is a major step in that direction. We understand that while an Ola might be available around you, a working Internet connection might not always be.

Ola Offline will now plug this gap.” He further added, “Mobility is an integral part of a developing economy. It should not stop, irrespective of any technology or infrastructural constraint. We will constantly look at innovative ways to realise our mission of building mobility for a billion Indians.”