The Tamil Nadu Arasu Cable TV Corporation Ltd (TACTV) has set the ball rolling to fulfil one of Chief Minister Jayalalithaa’s electoral promises — providing free Wi-Fi in public places across the State.
The cable corporation is targeting to roll out the service by September this year, sources said.
In the first phase, TACTV plans to set up public Wi-Fi hotspots in 32 district headquarters bus stands, public parks and government shopping complexes, a source in the government told The Hindu.
The agency has invited tenders to provide equipment and applications including setting up of a server and portal and managing the data at TACTV’s headquarters.
“We want to start the project by September. Hopefully, the tenders will be finalised by the second week of August; we can expand the project to other places over the next few years. We also need to gauge how the public use the facility and depending on it, the project can be scaled up,” according to the official.
Time limit for free usageThe Wi-Fi service is likely to be replicated on the models provided in airports where users will have to log in and will get a specific time limit for free usage.
“Once a user logs in, let’s say, at CMBT in Koyambedu, he or she will get a specific free usage limit. So, if you travel to another place in the State on the same day and the system sees that you have used up your specified limit, you might have to pay and use the Wi-Fi. We might roll out a premium Wi-Fi service for that purpose. But again, these modalities are still being worked out,” the source said.
Service providerThe agency already has a service provider, Vodafone, to provide the bandwidth for internet services.
The company won a tender earlier this year and is contracted to provide bandwidth for three years.
