The Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) will provide free WiFi services at 3,500 spots across the city soon.

In September 2018, Deputy Chief Minister G Parameshwara had inaugurated a free WiFi facility at Govindaraja Nagar ward which provides internet facility around a 3 km radius in the ward.

A BBMP official said, “After a series of meetings with the state IT Department, we have finalised around 3,500 spots to be connected through WiFi in all the 198 wards in the city.”

“Work will be taken up in a phased manner and all these spots will have WiFi connection in another four months. Around four companies have expressed interest to provide the service. The process will be finalised soon,” he added.

Though the WiFi services were announced in the 2018-19 BBMP budget and also in previous state budgets, the project has not taken off so far.

The service is free for the first 30 minutes and later commercial rates, as fixed by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI), will be charged.

According to Govindarajanagar corporator Umesh Shetty, the internet speed in his ward is 100 Mbps and one can download or upload 1GB data per day. A private firm has spent Rs 3 crore on internet services.

However, the first WiFi network of the city on MG Road, which was inaugurated in 2014, is not functioning. For the last few years, users have been unable to locate the WiFi network to login.