Now that the Corporation has launched wifi services in Race Course as a pilot measure before taking it to the arterial areas of the city, the students and the walkers are glued to their smart phones accessing the world wide web through the internet service offered by three service providers.

The Corporation Council had announced that the wifi services will be made available at Race Course and Avinashi Road over a 6 km stretch on an experimental basis. While several other schemes that have been announced by the Council remains merely in paper, the wifi service announcement has gained momentum.

A sum of Rs 1.5 crore has been earmarked to providing wifi and four firms including Reliance Geo Info Com, Indus Towers, Aircel and Blue Ultra Band has been roped in to provide the services. This service is now being used by the student community and the walkers who frequent Race Course are using their laptops, tablets and smart phones on a daily basis.

The corporation is to collect Rs 6300 for a year for a single kilometer and modems have been fixed on street lights and Rs 5 lakh is to be collected from the service providers for the same. The fund for the project is being used from the private players. The service in Avinashi Road is also expected to be in full fledged by the Independence Day.

The user will be given a one-time password that will be sent to him by way of an SMS and the service providers will keep a tab on the IEMI number of the cell phone, sim card and will also keep a check on the web sites that are surfed by way of this connection. The corporation has cautioned the users against watching objectionable or obscene sites and has asked them to make use of the facility productively.