Wi-Fi has glitches, but a big hit with rail commuters

The newly launched Wi-fi at Dadar station drew crowds and commuters said that though the connection was slow, they were happy to avail of the amenity at one of the most important interchanging stations for both Central and Western Railway. Launched by Union railway minister Suresh Prabhu, most passengers are yet to get familiar with the system even as some spots lack a strong enough signal. Overall however, the response to the launch has been good.

Commuters - young and old, male and female – who were interchanging trains at Dadar were seen stopping at the Dadar CR foot-over-bridge and trying to connect to the Wifi. The younger lot was seen helping the technologically challenged as to how to use the facility. One such youth, Narendra Vishwakarma (28), who was trying to help a middle-aged man connect to the system, said, “I am trying for the last 10 minutes but for some reason, it isn’t connecting. Neither is the gentleman next to be able to connect to Wifi.”

Many said that the signal strength and speed was stronger on platforms than on foot-over-bridges. Abhijit Shah (21), who was trying to connect to Wifi with his friends, Rushabh Patel and Siddhanth Shah, said that they were able to use Wifi when they entered Dadar but lost the connection as soon as they climbed the stairs. “The signal is too weak, we have been trying for a while now but the speed is extremely slow here. It’s the exact opposite on platforms. On platforms, Wifi is fast and messages can be sent quickly, you can surf the Internet and it’s as good as the Wifi connection at home,” said Mr Abhijit.

Mr Patel said that the signal was surprisingly strong at the ticket booking office on the very same foot-over-bridge. “Maybe, the modems that have been placed here are weaker and those at the stations are stronger. But yes, this is a good initiative by the railways, especially at important stations like Dadar and I will keep tabs to see if it gets better,” he said.

Ravi Karade, a Ghatkopar resident who travels to his workplace in Andheri every day, said that he had been receiving Internet at the same slow rate of 0.1 kpbs. “I have got the same slow speed of Internet speed everywhere. I sent a message on Whatsapp around 10 minutes ago and it just went through, so I don’t know what is the exact issue but maybe Wifi is new so they are still figuring things out. But I am glad that they are doing this in the first place. Now, I don’t mind leaving a train or two because of the crowd as I still have Wifi to kill time,” said Mr Karade.

The facility has been provided by RailTel, a public sector undertaking (PSU) of the railways which provides Internet facility using the existing optic fibre laid down on the track by the railways. Officials said that since this optic fibre was being used, signals were stronger at platforms than foot-over-bridges.