Private City Bus goes ‘Hi-Fi’ with the Installation of Wi-Fi?

Private City Bus goes ‘Hi-Fi’ with the Installation of Wi-Fi?

Mangaluru: Travelling in one of the private City Bus here will be Hi-Fi, the bus has undergone a total transformation, by installing Wi-Fi. In the city we all have access to Wi-Fi at Fast Food Shacks, Restaurants, Hotels, Bus Stand, Airport and many other establishments, but now a private bus plying in the city is offering free Wi-Fi service for its passengers through a device provided by a private firm. Recently, the Karnataka State Road Transport Corporation (KSRTC) had introduced free Wi-Fi services at its major bus stations across the State, including Mangaluru. KSRTC was the first public transport operator in the country to provide free Wi-Fi across both tier-1 and tier-2 cities on a trial basis.

While inside the KSRTC bus station-Mangaluru, one has to enable Wi-Fi on the device and select ‘ION Wi-Fi’ from the available networks before downloading free Ion Wi-Fi App from ION network or Google Play Store. iPhone users would get the login page through their browsers or they can download the App from iStore. The users have to enter 10-digit mobile phone number and receive the password over SMS. The Wi-Fi router had been installed at the inquiry counter of the bus station. Wi-Fi coverage is available within a radius of 80 metres from the inquiry counter.

Now coming to the topic of this column, 23-year-old Ibrahim Thabreez, a graduate in MBA, and whose dad, Abdul Rehman owns three buses by the name Golden Line, of which one bus which operates between State Bank Bus Stop-Mangaluru and Hoo Havuvakallu near Koanje in the outskirts of Mangaluru having Wi-Fi service speaking to Mangalorean.com said, “The Central Government under the leadership of PM Narendra Modi has come up with a unique concept of introducing ‘Digital India’ which aims at providing all citizens of India an improved online infrastructure and high-speed Internet facilities. In the absence of high-speed Internet facilities in the rural areas, people have been finding difficulties in using mobile banking facilities, money transfers, and even usage of social networks like FaceBook, WhatsApp, Twitter, Instagram etc”.

Speaking further he said, “Now let me tell you what made me introduce Wi-Fi facility in the bus owned by my father- I used to travel nearly 20 km from my home to my office. It so happened one day, me being an Export executive at a private exporting business named Sharief Marine Products (P) Ltd based in Mangaluru, while I was travelling in a private bus I had to immediately reply to one important email pertaining to the business. But due to the low-speed internet service, I was not able to communicate with the concerned people, which unfortunately resulted in the cancellation of the order and also hurt the company that I worked for. We even lost this good customer.”

“At that moment a very good idea stuck my mind, that a necessity of high-speed Internet is very much needed in the present world of technology, where most of the business transactions are dealt through the Internet. With the permission of my dad, who was very supportive I decided to install Wi-Fi in one of our three buses, where citizens, especially youngsters could make the best use of net connection via Wi-Fi for their requirement when they are travelling in our bus. And I am happy to say that my initiative has proved very successful, with common people and Mangalore University-Konaje students have been very appreciative of this Wi-Fi service.” added Ibrahim.

The details as to how to use the Wi-Fi service while travelling in ‘Golden Line’ Bus has been posted inside the bus-like how to use the password and other relevant details. As per Ibrahim where he mentions that, “Since there is a restriction of 1 GB free Data usage for the service provider’s customers, I end up recharging additional data for the benefit of our travellers free of charge. Presently we require about 3 GB data everyday, and I am glad that the response has been tremendous and overwhelming, that I am planning to introduce Wi-Fi service in our other two buses. Our main intention is to provide the best service from i=our side to our customers, and I am happy to say that passengers travelling in our bus fitted with Wi-Fi service, especially students, office-goers, professionals, and other citizens can have easy access and can enjoy the benefit of uninterrupted Wi-Fi service.”

At the end of our interaction with each other, Ibrahim said, “Although I am an MBA graduate, I don’t show off, instead work hard like a common man. While at present we are the only one to introduce such Wi-Fi service, I hope that other buses also introduce Wi-Fi service. It doesn’t cost much, but in order to attract more passengers, we have to come up with unique ideas that would be an added benefit for the passengers. I hope other bus operators also install Wi-Fi in their buses which would surely benefit the customers, while we are all in a digital world for faster communication.”