Mumbai Local Station (Churchgate, CST) will have Free Wi-Fi in 1 week

Seven local stations, including CST and Churchgate, will have free Wi-Fi facility in a week.

The railways have decided to set up the facility like it has been at Mumbai Central. As many as 50,000 people connect to the free Wi-Fi facility that was started at Mumbai Central in partnership with Google on January 22.

Railway minister Suresh Prabhu tweeted: "7 more stns Panvel, Thane, Byculla, Khar, Bandra, Churchgate, CSTM are under validation available to public in week."

Some of these stations were supposed to get Wi-Fi on August 15 but the work has got delayed. Other stations where Wi-Fi work is in progress include Vashi, Wadala, Dombivli, Badlapur, Mulund, Belapur, Chembur on Central Railway and Virar and Borivli on Western Railway.

For the first one hour, users will get full speed after which the speed will gradually decreased.

The Wi-Fi can be accessed in concourse areas and on platforms of suburban and long-distance trains.

Users will have to select Railwire as soon as they switch-on to the Wi-Fi mode.T he user will have to feed in the mobile number to get a one-time-password on phone.

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Wi-fi Hotspots:where does India stand

 
* While New York is setting up 10,000 Wi-Fi stations across the city, India currently has around 31,518 wi-fi hotspots and a recent paper prepared by Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) states that in order to reach the global benchmark of one hotspot for every 150 citizens, India needs to add 8 lakh more hotspots.

* “The situation of Wi-Fi hotspots is not encouraging in India as we represent one sixth of the world population whereas our share in Wi-Fi hotspots is less than 1/1,000,” Trai has said.

* In July, Trai issued a consultation paper seeking views on using public wi-fi networks to be able to provide affordable internet services. It also sought views on the regulatory and licensing hurdles being faced by service providers, and the measures need to be taken to address these issues.

* Earlier in May, Trai chairman RS Sharma said that the watchdog would soon begin consultations to explore a sustainable model for wi-fi in public places, considering that the models deployed hitherto both by private and state-owned firms have largely remained unsuccessful.

* “What we want is that user should be able to move from one place to another and seamlessly get connected, and without much hassles he should be connected. This is the architecture that we’re looking at — interoperability between wi-fi providers, seamless payment methods. These are some of the aspects of how you can create a structure which enables the wi-fi in public places,” Sharma had said.

* Through its paper Trai also sought views on integration of various networks, and has asked suggestions for measures that would be required to encourage interoperability between the wi-fi networks of different service providers, both within the country and internationally. It would also provide cheaper access to internet. As per Trai’s calculations cost of internet through wi-fi could cost Rs 0.02 per megabit as against Rs 0.23 per megabit on 2G/3G/4G networks.

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Audi unveils in-car 4G LTE wireless broadband

Audi AG has unveiled the 2013 Audi A3 with 4GLTE wireless connectivity powered by the second generation Gobi multi-mode 3G/4G LTE chipset, the MDM9215, by Qualcomm Technologies, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Qualcomm Incorporated at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. With peak data rates approaching 100 megabits per second, the enhanced “Audi connect” services in the A3 are expected to transform the user experience and provide enhanced features such as an in-car Wi-Fi hotspot, Internet radio, Web services and an augmented navigation system that presents street level visual imagery streamed to the vehicle. “Audi was the first automaker to highlight the potential for LTE connectivity in vehicles at CES 2012 and now becomes the first automaker to announce a commercial model with embedded 4G LTE connectivity,” said Ricky Hudi, chief executive engineer of electrics/electronics, Audi AG.“As a highlight, we will soon be offering a fully integrated LTE link for our Audi connect services in the new Audi A3 in 2013.” The Gobi MDM9215 chipset will be implemented by Audi in the automotive module. The solution will power Audi connect with 4G LTE speeds and is designed to enable enhancements to real-time navigation, weather and travel information while providing ultra-fast Wi-Fi hotspot access for up to eight devices in the car. Qualcomm has been embedding its Gobi technology with leading automakers for more than a decade and is currently the largest supplier of 3G and 4G technologies and chipsets for passenger-car telematics and connected-car services, with tens of millions of connected vehicles in operation worldwide. “We hope to introduce to automobiles the same 4G LTE connectivity that Qualcomm brought to today’s leading smartphones and mobile computing devices,” said Kanwalinder Singh, senior vice president of business development, Qualcomm Technologies, Inc.“The capabilities ofthe MDM9215 chipset allows Audi to define a new in-car media experience, including viewing and interacting with content on the headunit as well as on passengers’ own Wi-Fi-connected smartphones and tablets, all at 4G LTE speeds.” Source:Internet

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