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2012

GOOGLE, O-ZONE OFFERING WI-FI ACCESS ACROSS INDIA FOR FREE

January 12, 2012 0

Google has pushed in an effort to encourage the use of mobile Internet and have Wi-Fi access enabled on portable devices for using Google+ and YouTube, among other services. Business Standard reported that the search engine giant has cemented a promotional deal with public Wi-Fi provider, O-Zone Networks. However, the company has restricted the usage of the users, to promote Google+ in a unique way. This deal is struck between the parties for the Indian territory.

As noted per the deal, users will be able to avail unlimited, free access to Google+ and YouTube over Wi-Fi networks across all O-Zone hot-spots in India.

Whats more? Users get an exclusive movie clips for free, each week for a duration of 10 minutes. That might not work out good for everyone, but can be fine for some.

This partnership has gone live and will be active all through the next three months across India on all O-Zone Wi-Fi hot-spots But the company is intending to turn the same into a long-term contract with Google.

However, those users, who are visiting Café Coffee Day, McDonalds, Café Oz, Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf, Costa Coffee, Subway and OM Bookshop, frequently, can reap the maximum benefits of the service.

Noting a few details about the offer, Sanjeev (Bobby) Sarin, CEO, O-Zone Networks stated, “This is a first-of-its kind promotional tie-up. “This association between Google India and O-Zone Networks reinforces the fact that people are now realizing the power of Wi-Fi. We aim to provide a good Internet surfing experience to the customers. With India being the fastest growing Internet market in the world, people are very conscious of the content they view online. This will enable them to enjoy Google+ and YouTube free of cost at any of our hot-spots”

India, unlike its traditional GPRS approach, are moving towards 4G and Sarin believes that with this effort from the partnered companies, there would be an increase in usage of smartphones, while the use of Wi-Fi, too, will increase. It is the first of its kind partnership, which will definitely help the cause as the O-Zone CEO noted.

“Wi-Fi will grow parallel with 3G and 4G. It has better speed in enclosed networks than 3G. More, as people start using video applications, telcos, too, will prefer to shift traffic to Wi-Fi networks,” said Sarin.

O-Zone, funded by Access Industries, already has 5,000 Wi-Fi access points across India, half of which are in public locations. The company aims to have 50,000 hot-spots by 2013.

For the usage, it was noted that the company has seen an increase of 30 per cent month-on-month in usage.