CHENNAI: The Marina Beach, the city’s 3 km long promenade will soon offer visitors free 4G WiFi, which is significantly more modern than hot sundal and horse rides.
Fledgling telecom major, Reliance Jio Infocomm, Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance Industries Limited’s (RIL) telecom arm, will soon be setting up an internet network infrastructure for Jionet - 4G internet offering at the Marina Beach.
Beginning from North of the Lighthouse, technicians from the company have begun installing the necessary infrastructure for providing WiFi access to thousands of visitor to the beach.
According to sources, the WiFi network will go live once the infrastructure is set up within a few weeks. The company will then begin offering its 4G internet connectivity through WiFi to all visitors to the Marina. The usage will enable the company to test its infrastructure and fix any bugs and glitches before the commercial launch of the service, expected around March, 2016.
The company’s offer to the public at the Marina is not new. Reliance Jio has tested its WiFi internet infrastructure in over 150 locations across the country, including the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai and over 50 locations in Indore, all freely accessible to the public.
Visitors to the Marina, to enable WiFi on their mobiles or laptops, will have to go to jionet.jio.in, enter their mobile numbers and request a verification code, which will be sent via SMS. The code, once entered, will provide the user access to the network for a period of 24 hours. It is as yet unclear whether a tariff will be levied for access on the Marina network after the initial testing phase.
Reliance Jio Infocomm went beta when over 90,000-odd employees of the group went live on the voice-over-LTE (4G) network on December 27, Dhirubhai Ambani’s 83rd birthday. RJIL controls over 2,300MHz spectrum and 800MHz or 1,800MHz or both in 20 out of the 22 circles in the country, with a roadmap targeting 100 per cent coverage within the next three years.