Google To Provide Free WiFi In 400 Train Stations In India
Google has always been in the business of making the world a better place to live in. When the company launched Google Dot Org in October 2005, the company created an outlet for its social responsibility and philanthropic projects. Aside from Google Dot Org, Google also has Google Foundation, which is under Google Dot Org. Since Google’s philanthropy projects’ inception in 2005, they have funded poverty-alleviation projects, as well as projects that will help bridge the education gap, especially in developing countries.
Of late, Google seems to be integrating its philanthropy into its mainstream, for-profit operations. From the Android One to providing low-cost to free Internet access to developing countries, Google is out to ensure that more people can go online and experience the benefits that the World Wide Web has to offer.
This seems to be the drive behind Google’s latest project, which is to provide 400 train stations in India with broadband connection. In cooperation with Indian Railways and RailTel, Google will be providing free WiFi access to India’s train commuters.
India’s train stations have a daily traffic of at least 10 million residents. With the free WiFi access on the selected train stations, around 10 million Indians will be able to go online to communicate with family, friends, learn new things from around the Internet, as well as find jobs. With this, Sundar Pichai hopes to provide a portal to the world’s most powerful communication tool to his homeland.
This announcement comes on the heels of the United Nations report that around 57% or around 4.2 billion of the world’s population is still largely disconnected. This means that these 4.2 billion disconnected people do not have access to information, communications platforms, as well as job postings that the rest of the world already enjoys.
With this new effort from Google, 10 million out of that 4.2 billion will soon be able to enjoy much-needed free access to the World Wide Web.
***
More on the UN Broadband Report: https://www.droidreport.com/un-report-more-half-worlds-population-still-has-no-regular-internet-access-11291
Google, on its philanthropic activities: https://googleblog.blogspot.com/2005/10/about-googleorg.html
Google Dot Org: https://www.google.org/index.html
More on the Android One: https://www.droidreport.com/taxonomy/term/22037