As part of the State government’s initiative to provide free Wi-Fi services to people at select places, a Wi-Fi smart pole was inaugurated on the premises of Kalaburagi City Corporation by Congress Leader in the Lok Sabha M. Mallikarjun Kharge on Wednesday.

Speaking on the occasion, Minister for Information Technology and Bio-Technology and Tourism Priyank Kharge said that the smart pole was the first of its kind in the State and 12th in the country.

“With this smart pole Wi-Fi, one can have unlimited browsing and 100 MB download a day with a data transfer speed of 1 mbps. We are planning to shortly establish similar smart poles in 18 other places in the city,” he said.

Mr. Priyank said that as per the announcement made in the last budget, work to provide free Wi-Fi services in 2,500 gram panchayats was under way. “The task would be completed by the end of March,” he said.

Indus Tower Karnataka is implementing projects to establish smart poles in association with the government. Subbu Ayyar, a representative of the company, said that each pole cost about IRs. 5 lakh.

“The smart pole is so powerful that it can offer free Wi-Fi service up to 300 m,” he said.

Medical Education Minister and Kalaburagi in-charge Sharanprakash Patil, Mayor Sharankumar Modi, Deputy Commissioner R. Venkatesh Kumar, Corporation Commissioner Raghunandan Murthy, District Congress Committee president Jagadev Guttedar and others were present.

source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu> News> States> Karnataka / by Staff Reporter / Kalaburagi – February 15th, 2018