Google announces shut down of 'Station' free Wi-Fi service at Indian railway stations

Tech giant Google on Monday anunced that it is shutting down its Google Station programme, a free WiFi service at railway stations. Google h launched its Station initiative in India in 2015 with an aim to provide fast, free public Wi-Fi to over 400 of busiest railway stations in country by mid-2020.

company used RailTel’s large-scale network to provide connectivity. However, target was surpassed in June 2018. company cited low mobile data costs in India, amongst lowest in world, and its own inability to make it a sustainable business model to scale program, especially for its partners, as reasons for shutting Station down.

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“As we look to next phase of enabling access, it’s clear that since we started five years ago, getting online has become much simpler and cheaper. Mobile data plans have become more affordable and mobile connectivity is improving globally. India, specifically w has among cheapest mobile data per GB in world, with mobile data prices having reduced by 95% in last 5 years, as per TRAI in 2019. Today, Indian users consume close to 10 GB of data each month on aver. And similar to what Indian government did, several governments and local entities have kicked off ir own initiatives to provide easier, cost-effective access to internet for everyone,” said company in a blog post.

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“In dition to this changed context, challenge of varying technical requirements and infrastructure among our partners across countries has also me it difficult for Station to scale and be sustainable, especially for our partners. And when we evaluate where we can truly make an impact in future, we see greater need and bigger opportunities in building products and features tailored to work better for next billion-user markets,” it ded.

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According to data shared by Google in 2018, Google Station h close to 8 million monthly active users across 400 stations. data showed consumption was much higher in tier 2 cities while aver data consumption stood at 350MB.

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