Mumbai Central becomes first railway station to offer free Google Wifi!

Mumbai Central, Western Railway's main station in Mumbai, started providing free Wifi service to commuters on Friday, as part of the central government's plan to power 400 railway stations across the country with free internet service.

This is the start of a joint initiative by the government and internet search giant Google to make high-speed internet available to millions of Indians who travel through railway stations every day.

Indian Railways' arm RailTel, which provides internet services as RailWire via its extensive fibre network, announced the launch of free high-speed public Wi-Fi service in partnership with Google at Mumbai Central.

The project was announced last September during Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to Google headquarters in Mountain View, California in the US.

Google's free Wi-Fi network at Mumbai Central station, allows bored commuters and snacks-vendors log on to the internet at the station and inside the trains.

With more than 23 million people riding Indian Railways every day, Google says free internet in train stations will give high-speed access that many can't afford.

With greater internet penetration the search giant also hopes to diversify its user base in India, where less than a third of internet users are women. Google has been upgrading its services in Hindi and other languages spoken across India.

"Most of India is still not online," Google CEO Sundar Pichai said last month in New Delhi. "We want to bring access to as many people as possible," he said. For the project, Google teamed up with Indian Railways as well as communications infrastructure provider RailTel.

Google has committed to work with Indian Railways and RailTel to expand the network to cover 100 of the busiest stations by end of this year and will eventually roll out the service in 400 railway stations across the country.

Designed to offer users the best internet experience, Railwire Wi-Fi will be available to any user who has a working mobile connection on a smart phone. Users will be able to easily stream a high definition video while they are waiting, research their destination, or save some videos for offline viewing, download a book or a new game for the journey.