After introducing Wi-Fi services at major airports last year, Tata Teleservices is now set to expand its operations across nine cities in India.
Tata Teleservices has plans to set up nearly 4000 Wi-Fi hotspots in nine cities across India over the period of two years. The cities expected to receive the services are not yet revealed. The service provider already has set up 540 Wi-Fi hotspots across the country including New Delhi, Bangalore international airport, the Wankhede cricket stadium in Mumbai and several cafes in various cities.
Setting up Wi-Fi hotspots is becoming more practical given the sudden increase in smartphones in India. Wi-Fi hotspot becomes more preferable than an active 2G/3G data service or data dongle. Narendra Modi also announced similar plans in Ahmedabad.
Speaking about the company’s plans, Avinash Gabriel, Chief Operations Officer of Wi-Fi business at Tata Teleservices, said, “From about 1 lakh logins in April last year, we now have 4.4 lakh logins, where the average time spent in each session is 40 minutes. So roughly, we’ve clocked 35 million minutes of usage as of January, up from 18 million minutes in April.”
