Seamless access to the Internet across the city became a reality with chief minister Naveen Patnaik launching the long-awaited Wi-Fi project at the secretariat on Monday.
The BhubaneswarMe Wi-Fi service has 100 hotspots spread across the city. The hotspots are located on major locations between KIIT and Governor House, Acharya Vihar and AG Square, Sishu Bhavan and Vani Vihar and Nalco Square and Acharya Vihar.
The service, which is being driven by the Bhubaneswar Smart City Limited (BSCL), also comes with 275 access points for users.
A BSCL official said that a single Wi-Fi hotspot would be able to handle 150 users at a time with an Internet speed of up to 2mbps (megabytes per second). A user will get
250MB data free on a given day, but any further use comes at a cost.
However, a person will not be charged any fee for browsing government websites. To make payment for extra usage, a user will have to opt for digital payment.
The Wi-Fi network covers 80km of road stretch, but the user will have to be present within a 300-metre radius of the access point to avail of the services.
“I am happy that the BhubaneswarMe Wi-Fi project will become the first-ever project in the country with a unique capability to cover the entire city. I hope all citizens, especially the younger generation, will find the facility very useful. This will help the state government bridge the digital divide,” Naveen said.
“The Wi-Fi network uses a wireless bandwith of 2.4GHz and 5GHz, based on the handset capabilities of the user. The wireless architecture and plan is designed to comply with all the regulations and principles of Telecom Regulatory Authority of India and the department of telecommunication of the central government,” said an official of the Bhubaneswar Smart City Limited.
According to sources, the project will be executed in phases. While the first phase comes with 100 hotspots, the second phase will add another 518 hotspots at 100 more locations. The entire project will be completed by March with the introduction of 1,800 access points.
