3i Infotech, which has bagged RailTel’s contract to manage the WiFi network for Indian Railways across over 6,000 stations, plans to increase user engagement by five times its initial number in the next two months.
In an exclusive interview with the Hindu BusinessLine, Thompson P. Gnanam, MD & Global CEO of 3i Infotech, said that the IT company has commenced working on the current assets of the Indian Railways broadband network, and the goal is to drive better asset utilisation and drive efficiencies on the optic fibre network.
P. Gnanam believes that the network is underutilised at the moment, leaving room for the IT company to scale up engagement massively.
Railtel is the Indian Railways WiFi network offered at over 6,000 Indian railway stations for free. Launched in 2016 in collaboration with Google, the network continues to see underutilisation more than seven years later.
P. Gnanam explained, “even if you look at current numbers, we have an annual usage of 38.62 crore on this WiFi network. The number of daily users on this network is no more than 10,000. This is at the base of over 500 crore unique travellers using the railways every year.”
He said that to monetise the network, the first and foremost priority for the IT company would be to improve engagement on the WiFi network by many manifolds. They expect to make annual investments of Rs 21-26 crore for the next five years at the minimum, with Rs 14 crore going to Railtel annually.
The IT company also plans to introduce a super app in the next three quarters, which will offer a host of services for the passengers of Indian Railways. From allowing users to connect to the Wifi portal and use internet services on the train, consumers could also potentially book tickets and order food or cab services in the future. Live entertainment services with mainstream media brands could also be in the works, but initially, the IT company will be deploying banner ads.
The initial version of the super-app, or rather, an app to connect users to Railtel’s WiFi services, will be out by the end of the first quarter of FY24.
Speaking on the recent data breaches of the IRCTC ticketing portal RailYatri, P. Gnanam said, “we will be deploying our latest edge equipment, which is compliant with the latest GDPR regulations.”
P. Gnanam believes that their edge technology deployed within Railtel could also open future synergies with a 5G network.
