KOCHI: One doesn’t have to think a lot to name the facility which has caught on fast and has become an essential part of our lives- free WiFi facility. Nearly all homes have a WiFi connection, shops and private hostels trumpet free connectivity to lure in customers while the Railways is using this facility as an icing on the services they provide. Ernakulam South Railway Station has a widely used free wireless internet, which offers great service at speeds which is unimaginable on most networks. And this is where internet users flock to roost.
Watching live streaming videos, downloading movies, listening to songs, playing games, booking tickets, connecting to people - the uses of free WiFi range far and wide. The introduction of the new service has the Railway Station teeming with teens, youngsters and middle-aged people alike. “If you come here in the afternoon, one will find the entire staircase occupied by youngsters using WiFi. They may be regular passengers too,” says the station master at the station.
Contrary to what one might believe, the railway officials do not have an issue with people coming to the station only to use the free WiFi. “These people enter the station after buying platform tickets and we have no reason to stop them,” he adds. When asked if the passengers find it this trend irksome, the station manager explained that everyone has the privilege to use it if they don’t interrupt the passenger movement.
The users are a happy lot since free WiFi makes their wait fun and fruitful, which would otherwise have been dull and uninteresting. “We are regular travellers from Alapuzha. We use the WiFi facility a lot. The speed is really good even if many log use the connectivity. Sometimes the browsing speed touches nearly 8Mbps. Facebook and WhatsApp are what I use the most,” says Aslam, a regular traveller along with his friends Ajmal and Ameen. From a father making his children happy by showing videos to professionals who manage their work on the go, free WiFi has succeeded in achieving what it set out to do - making life easier for the passengers.
A greater deal of analysis went into the setting up of the WiFi routers. “The fixing of the routers is called as RF planning and are placed only where roofs exist because people generally prefer to stand under the roof,” says Ranjith, Telecommunications operator at Ernakulam Junction. Though there have been complaints initially about the service getting disconnected at times, Ranjith says the issues have been sorted out. “The breakage of the network happens only when there is a prolonged power break and railway stations experience it very rarely,” he adds.