Wi-Fi Connectivity Reaches Indian Railway

Railway Ministry starts implementing its 2013 budget promise with the Delhi-Howrah Rajdhani Express.

After floating the idea of free Wi-Fi on trains at the 2013 Rail budget, Railway Minister Pawan Kumar Bansal seems to have started to make good on his pledge. The internet connectivity for this pilot project is being provided by Railtel. The service goes live and will be free of cost for passengers travelling on the Delhi-Howrah Rajdhani Express, reports Economic Times.

Before making it available for the Delhi-Howrah route, a trial-run was carried out on the Mumbai-Ahmedabad Shatabdi Express. In an official statement, the Railway Minister has promised to extend the facility to 50 more rakes including Rajdhani, Shatabdi, and Duronto trains. Powered by a satellite hub facility set up by the Indian Railways, satellite antennas will be placed in one of the two power cars of the rake. The service will offer 4 Mbps of download and 512 Kbps upload bandwidth inside the moving train. To use the functionality, passengers only need to register with details such as the PNR and their mobile number, after which, a login ID and password will be sent via SMS. The free Wi-Fi access on the train will be valid for the duration of the journey.

Wi-Fi Connectivity Reaches Indian Railway | TechTree.com

Wi-Fi Connectivity Reaches Indian Railway after which the signal is weakened for customers LOL :lol:

I wonder how long would it take to get the SMS of the details.

gameranand said:
I wonder how long would it take to get the SMS of the details.

No, we will get the SMS but after reaching our destination

Too bad the train still hasn't reached the station.

Unsanitary Toilets . But WiFi ! Woah ! Great .

what if terrorists or hackers will connect to it and send viruses to user's laptops????

That's a great news and an even greater achievement for the Indian Railways.
We don't know for sure, whether our trains will reach the destination on time or not, or whether it'll reach at all, and we are taking huge leaps in terms of connectivity?
We haven't been able to equip our trains with ACD (Anti Collision Devices) till now, and we neither have a mechanism to accurately pinpoint where our trains are, and we are talking about WiFi?
People are forced to buy tickets in black, those travelling in general compartments, have to travel stacked one over another for their entire journeys and the railway minister thinks about WiFi?
Our tracks are soiled with whatever we go and do in lavatories and the railways thought it more important to provide WiFi in moving trains?
We are served "Rat Biryani", and other filthy stuff in our food in the trains and we are looking forward to having WiFi connectivity?
We can't book a ticket on the IRCTC site most of the time, and we are expected to enjoy WiFi connectivity in the trains?
The Indian Railways is the largest PSU in the world in terms of employment, and still it's a seriously inefficient and a loss making entity.
The world's going at the speeds in excess to 400 kmph and we are still struggling to maintain an average of 50-60 kmph.

That's a great achievement for the Indian Railways and for the Indian Government too.

Lets see ...I have to travel in same train by july end , it would be fun to see how things workout there ..Wifi or no wifi , signal or no signal

ssdivisiongermany1933 said:
Lets see ...I have to travel in same train by july end , it would be fun to see how things workout there ..Wifi or no wifi , signal or no signal

that's great please give an review on that after your trip

CyberKID said:
That's a great news and an even greater achievement for the Indian Railways.
We don't know for sure, whether our trains will reach the destination on time or not, or whether it'll reach at all, and we are taking huge leaps in terms of connectivity?
We haven't been able to equip our trains with ACD (Anti Collision Devices) till now, and we neither have a mechanism to accurately pinpoint where our trains are, and we are talking about WiFi?
People are forced to buy tickets in black, those travelling in general compartments, have to travel stacked one over another for their entire journeys and the railway minister thinks about WiFi?
Our tracks are soiled with whatever we go and do in lavatories and the railways thought it more important to provide WiFi in moving trains?
We are served "Rat Biryani", and other filthy stuff in our food in the trains and we are looking forward to having WiFi connectivity?
We can't book a ticket on the IRCTC site most of the time, and we are expected to enjoy WiFi connectivity in the trains?
The Indian Railways is the largest PSU in the world in terms of employment, and still it's a seriously inefficient and a loss making entity.
The world's going at the speeds in excess to 400 kmph and we are still struggling to maintain an average of 50-60 kmph.

That's a great achievement for the Indian Railways and for the Indian Government too.

It's primarily for the white-clothed parasites so they can stream youporn uninterrupted, in case they have to suffer the indignity of travelling in a 1st AC compartment in a train.

Hmm. It would feel good to hack it

JK

N

I have wi fi connection because it give me reliable connection and unbreakable connection. We can connect many number of systems by this connection just like mobile network.

kARTechnology said:
what if terrorists or hackers will connect to it and send viruses to user's laptops????

+1,very much likely in our country.
The law enforcement deptt. and various agencies are still a noob compared to hackers(white hat hackers or black hat hackers or cyber terrorists group)as of now.
The hackers are always many steps ahead of govt. agencies,according to incidents.

Nice! It'll be a great trip next time I'm on train.
Waiting for reviews of the speed etc by a user

Kl@w-24 said:
It's primarily for the white-clothed parasites so they can stream youporn uninterrupted, in case they have to suffer the indignity of travelling in a 1st AC compartment in a train.

Porn?? Hah! They have girls.

B

kg11sgbg said:
+1,very much likely in our country.
The law enforcement deptt. and various agencies are still a noob compared to hackers(white hat hackers or black hat hackers or cyber terrorists group)as of now.
The hackers are always many steps ahead of govt. agencies,according to incidents.

White hat.. means ethical hackers.. you should not compare them with black hats or terrorists

^^sorry for misunderstanding me.

I meant to compare their "Technical Skills" not about ethics or malpractices or idealism.

CyberKID said:
That's a great news and an even greater achievement for the Indian Railways.
We don't know for sure, whether our trains will reach the destination on time or not, or whether it'll reach at all, and we are taking huge leaps in terms of connectivity?
We haven't been able to equip our trains with ACD (Anti Collision Devices) till now, and we neither have a mechanism to accurately pinpoint where our trains are, and we are talking about WiFi?
People are forced to buy tickets in black, those travelling in general compartments, have to travel stacked one over another for their entire journeys and the railway minister thinks about WiFi?
Our tracks are soiled with whatever we go and do in lavatories and the railways thought it more important to provide WiFi in moving trains?
We are served "Rat Biryani", and other filthy stuff in our food in the trains and we are looking forward to having WiFi connectivity?
We can't book a ticket on the IRCTC site most of the time, and we are expected to enjoy WiFi connectivity in the trains?
The Indian Railways is the largest PSU in the world in terms of employment, and still it's a seriously inefficient and a loss making entity.
The world's going at the speeds in excess to 400 kmph and we are still struggling to maintain an average of 50-60 kmph.

That's a great achievement for the Indian Railways and for the Indian Government too.

Typical gasbag 'aam aadmi' mentality. WiFi is a useful addition, nothing changes that. Yes, lots of improvements needed still, but no need to be cynical about it.

Krow said:
Typical gasbag 'aam aadmi' mentality. WiFi is a useful addition, nothing changes that. Yes, lots of improvements needed still, but no need to be cynical about it.

useful addition to maybe 10-15% of travelers, I'd rather prefer bio/chemical toilet implementation, and also BETTER PANTRY cars, if you check the current ones, you'll never eat anything made in train.

When will we move on to next gen engines & coaches, we're still using 30+years old tech, that too of Russia's.
We have so many 'engineering' colleges around India, why doesn't the Govt encourage some design contest?

Krow said:
Typical gasbag 'aam aadmi' mentality. WiFi is a useful addition, nothing changes that. Yes, lots of improvements needed still, but no need to be cynical about it.

That because the railways hasn't been able to provide the basic facilities, and are going ahead with such "useful additions". That's a useful addition, I understand, as I too suffer from weak network signals on my data card while travelling, hampering my internet connectivity, but the question is FOR WHOM? In my opinion, the railways should concentrate first on the basic amenities like proper booking system, management of crowd in a better way (to stop incidents like the one happened at Allahabad Railway Station during the Mahakumbh), ample trains to carry people in a "civilized way" (so that those who cannot afford to travel in AC, could have a decent travel, if not a memorable one).
The railways should first ensure that people should be confident of reaching their destination (rather than getting killed in mishaps happening out of no one's fault, and then the railway minister announcing an ex-gratia compensation of Rs. 5 lacs to the next of kins or Rs. 25K for the severely injured), and that the people should not be stranded at the railway stations in case their trains are getting delayed or cancelled.
Have you ever seen very small railway stations enroute any of your journeys? Have you ever pondered over how a physically handicapped or a visually impaired person will board a coach whose steps are about two feets above the "platform" he is on.
Did you ever tinker about a person who is filling his bottle of water from the water supply lines that are used to fill the tanks in coaches for use in the lavatories, and why he's doing so, even knowing the use of that water? May be he isn't able to or willing to buy a bottle of "RAIL NEER" on which MRP is printed as Rs. 15, but the vendor sells it off for Rs. 18 saying that he has to incur costs of cooling the bottle, and the drinking water points are either dried out or not working at all.

s18000rpm said:
We have so many 'engineering' colleges around India, why doesn't the Govt encourage some design contest?

The government is the only hurdle behind this sorry state of the country. I'm not blaming any particular party or government, but all. Remember one project of IIT Kanpur-SIMRAN (discussed here in detail)?

J

This is very cool.When this will happen in public transport buses?

s18000rpm said:
useful addition to maybe 10-15% of travelers, I'd rather prefer bio/chemical toilet implementation, and also BETTER PANTRY cars, if you check the current ones, you'll never eat anything made in train.

When will we move on to next gen engines & coaches, we're still using 30+years old tech, that too of Russia's.
We have so many 'engineering' colleges around India, why doesn't the Govt encourage some design contest?

In this respect i beg to differ...

Indian Railways suffers a lot from insipid bureaucracy,govt. inaction and a hell of corruption...which is admittedly True,but IR has imported its Technology mainly from the British/U.K (during the days of Raj) and then later from U.S. + France + Japan + Switzerland(the latest ABB WAP-5/7 series electric loco,that too more than a decade ago...)after Independence.

But it's true that what @s18000rpm has commented is well worth of it.

The implementation of wifi will no doubtedly help the IT related and Tech Savvy people(who constitute a miniscule of the population),but won't be of much use to the rest of elite + high economic class passengers travelling in these trains.More useful would have been the service for better toilets,hygeine values,Class of Food ,increased comfort....

Chennai: 11 coaches of passenger train derailed; 2 feared dead : Chennai: 11 coaches of passenger train derail; 2 feared dead - Video | The Times of India
Yeh log ghanta chalayenge Wifi train me :banghead:

All of you forget that wifi was implemented in Rajdhani alone. Unlikely to be applicable for other trains anytime soon. In that train, a bigger percentage of people is likely to use it. That's a good addition.
There are several genuine concerns listed here, all of which IR should work on. Bureaucracy and Railway Ministers' habit of merely starting more trains to/from their states really hurts our train system. We're still running at 33% efficiency, could utilise it much better.
But I disagree with this "get basics right first, then implement WiFi" thinking. I'm saying get all features for us in whatever order, I'll welcome each one. A step in the right direction is always welcome.

text link Tamil Nadu train accident: 11 coaches of passenger train derail near Arakkonam; 1 dead, 50 injured | NDTV.com

TOI link - ad every 20 seconds in between news :/

Accident happened in that same place again, 2-3 years ago two trains collided there. ~2007/8 there was protest in that area (near Arakonnam), I was in Lalbagh express that day, train was stopped for ~3hours.

R

4mbps of download for each user? FUP?

rajnusker said:
4mbps of download for each user? FUP?

Oh it might not be the download speed...
Download speed might be like 10kbps and the fup might be 4mb
It must have been a typo

R

^That makes sense.

S

I wonder how stable the internet connection would be!

don't count on that ;-)