Free Wi-Fi On Your Bus Coming Soon, Courtesy Of Google

Recently this week, Google has officially announced its Google Stations project, with the objective of delivering free Wi-Fi connections inside trains and buses across the globe. The tech giant has actually began this movement (or something like it) last year when it started bringing free Internet service to train and bus stations in India. Moving forward though, Google is envisioning country in the world to have a similar experience.

As explained by Caesar Sengupta, the vice president of Google’s Next Billion Users division, through Google’s official blog, the team conducted some research with the help of IPSPS, and learned that approximately 15,000 Indian go online on a daily basis by way of stations with free Wi-Fi service. Upon seeing those numbers, Sengupta and his team were inspired to bring this concept to the rest of the world.

The tech giant also stated that the Google Stations project will provide Google’s partners with an easy to acquire set of equipment to begin deploying Wi-Fi hotspots in public places. In other words, free access to Wi-Fi may depend on how diligently mobile operators roll out Wi-Fi hotspots that can be accessed by commuters while in stations or while riding trains or buses. 

Apart from the Google Stations project, Google also took the opportunity to unveil YouTube Go, a data light YouTube mobile app. YouTube Go is designed to be used for Indian users who frequently deal with either weak or unreliable Internet connections. According to Sengupta’s blog post, the Google crew is also looking to expand YouTube Go into a worldwide mobile app, to be utilized by users based in areas with poor web accessibility.

Opportunities for tech companies are growing in number now more than ever in India, and Google is only one of the many firms looking to establish a solid presence in the second most populous country in the planet. But interestingly, more than a billion people in the subcontinent still do not enjoy easy access to the information superhighway. However, that is slowly changing -- the country is now considered one of the fastest growing market for smartphone devices in the world. This means that more smartphones are becoming more available to the Indian population, providing them with a quick means for going online. Research firm Strategy Analytics has even projected that by next year, India will likely overtake the United States as the second largest mobile market across the globe, second only to China.