Railways goes WiFi with Internet on Kolkata Rajdhani

New Delhi, April 2: After increase in reservation and tatkal charges, a good news comes from the railways. The passengers on the Delhi-Kolkata (Howrah) Rajdhani would now be able to connect to internet through Wi-Fi facility while travelling.

"Many passengers feel the need to access internet while travelling," a official said.
Passenger will be given login and password for the duration of the journey based on the ticket details. They will have to provide mobile number, PNR number, Government ID (election card, Aadhar etc) for getting unique password by SMS.

This pilot project is free and it is proposed to be introduced in 50 train services including Shatabdi and Duronto trains.

The passengers will be able to browse the web, access email, chat and video services with 4 Mbps download and 512 Kbps upload bandwidth. However, the users may get much lower speeds because the bandwidth is for all the passengers on the train.

In case the demand becomes high, the network has the intelligence to prioritise traffic like email over video download.

How is the connection established?

Internet access has been provided using two-way satellite hybrid with 2G/3G and Wi-Fi. The system consists of on-board satellite tracking antenna, multi-band antenna and Wi-Fi broadcasting equipment. The satellite antenna is placed on one of the power-generating coaches.

The primary broadband link is established via satellite and in the event of non-availability of satellite the multi-access router automatically switches from satellite to 2G/3G spectrum to achieve 99 per cent connectivity. This is linked through Wi-Fi radios provided outside of each coach. This is further distributed inside the coaches through indoor access point.

OneIndia News