Gumthala Garhu becomes first Wifi hotspot village in Haryana

Chandigarh: Gumthala Garhu near Pehowa on Saturday became the first Wifi hotspot village in Haryana circle under the bulk plan of BSNL for the state.

The service was inaugurated by Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar from Chandigarh.

On the occasion, it was informed that BSNL Haryana circle has a plan to have 238 Wifi hotspot locations with 1072 access points in the state and the project would be implemented to its full capacity during the current financial year.

The Wifi hotspot facility at the village uses bandwidth of 10 mbps through BSNL's state-of-the-art network, according to an official release here tonight.

Ten outdoor and one indoor access points have been installed to cover the village. The coverage from each access point is about 100 meters. In this Wifi hotspot, data can be accessed by multiple users simultaneously, it said.

The BSNL has already installed 32 access points at different locations in Haryana under its retail plan, where a data can be accessed by the customer on paid basis for which subscription plans are available in the denomination ranging from Rs 10 to Rs 599 with data volume from 100 MB to 10 GB and validity from one day to 30 days, the statement said.

It said the gram panchayats are being connected as part of the National Optical Fibre Network Programme under Digital India Programme.

In Haryana, 6078 gram panchayats would be connected under this ambitious programme in a phased manner. Under phase one, work is in progress in 90 blocks and 90 per cent of it has already been completed. In phase two, work would commence in 24 blocks and it would be completed by the year end, the release mentions.

BSNL is introducing such a scheme which would automatically switch over to Wifi to provide high speed data to the consumers. It would be equal to 5G, it said, adding its technical trail has successfully been completed and the service would commence soon.

The BSNL would, on landline, provide data at a rate of one rupee per GB, it added.

Speaking on the occasion, Khattar said BSNL has "created history" by providing Wifi service in a village of the state and was a "matter of happiness".

He said earlier such services were available in cities only but are now were being extended to villages.

"I congratulate residents of the village and BSNL for this initiative," Khattar said.

The BSNL is providing Wifi hotspots in association with channel partner M/s Trimax in north zone, the release said.