Reliance Jio to Provide Free Wi-Fi to Colleges; 3 Crore Students May Benefit

After conquering the telecom world with announcing free phones, Reliance Jio now wants to provide free Wi-Fi facility, enabling three crore college students in India to access the Internet easily.

Government sources stated that a proposal in this regard has been submitted by Reliance to the HRD Ministry. It has also been revealed that the ministry is currently examining the proposal and a decision will soon be taken regarding the same.

The proposal was sent to the Ministry in June 2017 and Reliance Jio has presented the offer before the ministry. Sources also stated that any proposal submitted in this regard will have to undergo a transparent tender process.

According to the proposal received by the HRD Ministry, Reliance Jio has expressed the desire to facilitate Wi-Fi across 38,000 colleges, both technical and non-technical, in India that come under the administration of the HRD ministry.

The source also revealed that the Wi-Fi facility will be very helpful for students as they will be able to access online educational resources including courses on the SWAYAM MOOC platform. The company plans to create hotspots in order to enable Wi-Fi across colleges.

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This is the first time that the HRD Ministry has received such a proposal from a telecom service provider. Therefore, the government wants to ensure that other service providers have a fair opportunity.

The HRD ministry’s proposal to enable free Wi-Fi facility within the central universities has also been in the pipeline for quite some time, however, the plan is expected to start this year.

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In a recent announcement, HRD minister Prakash Javadekar said that Wi-Fi will be enabled across 38 universities by August 31 this year.