The Silicon Review ^Asia

Cisco has joined hands with search engine giant Google to roll out free high-speed WIFI across 200 locations in Bengaluru over the next two months, The Economic Times reported on Monday.

According to the report, the technology major announced at India Summit here that these WIFI zones will be in high-traffic areas in the IT city and not in railway stations. The locations include government offices, bus stops, hospitals, etc.

This partnership is aimed to provide internet connectivity to the next billion users, Sameer Garde, President, Cisco India & SAARC said.

“Moving from slow to high-speed Internet access will increase user engagement and benefit millions of Internet users throughout the economic spectrum...This also represents a significant growth opportunity, the demand for public Wi-Fi hotspots is expected to go up by 100 times over the next three years, creating new markets for Cisco and our partners,” said Mr. Garde.

This is an advertisement-supported business model and the revenue would be shared among three partners including the internet service provider - D-VoiS, Sajith Sivanandan, MD and Business Head, Google Pay and Next Billion User Initiatives, India said.

In order to reach a scale like global markets, India would need at least 4-6 million WIFI hotspots. Currently, the country has 15000 hotspots.