Holy city Varanasi is Wi-Fi now

Telecom Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad recently inaugurated BSNL's free Wi-fi service in Varanasi. BSNL's target to make 2500 Wi-Fi enabled cities has finally started with Dashaswamedh ghat in temple town Varanasi.

The Wi-Fi service will be free for the first thirty minutes and thereafter will be chargeable as per the prescribed rates. Mobile phones and tablets can access the Wi-Fi service irrespective of the SIM card being used.

After the free usage limit is exhausted, a customer can continue using the service on a paid basis, for which subscription plans are available in the denomination of Rs 20, Rs 30, Rs 50 and Rs 70 for validity of 30 minutes, 60 minutes, 120 minutes and one day, respectively.

The total cost of nationwide Wi-Fi programme is estimated to be around Rs 7,000 crore under which about 60,000 such hotspots will be created.

BSNL has plans to launch Wi-Fi service in other major cities also. The list includes Lucknow, Chennai, Bhopal, Patna, Hyderabad, Indore, Jaipur, Pune, Mysore, Vadodara, Gandhinagar, Ahmedabad and Chandigarh.