3i Infotech, an India-headquartered global provider of IT Infrastructure services, has reportedly won a five-year Wi-Fi monetisation deal from RailTel Corporation of India.
RailTel is a central government PSU (public sector undertaking), which owns a pan-Indian optical fibre cable network of over 60,000 kilometres along Indian Railways railway track.
Reaching the next 200 million customers says 3i Infotech, it will roll out what RailTel calls its Super App, which, the company says, will provide the right platform for digital advertisers and marketers to mass-market regional and hyper-local advertisements and content.
The Super App will provide access to Indian Railways services/information, value-added services – such as infotainment, e-commerce, education and premium content services – and free high-speed internet access to its users.
The revenue streams proposed under the project include both the Super App and a captive Wi-Fi network, through which the partnering companies hope to unlock advertising revenue.
The project has been won by a consortium led by 3i Infotech, which is also the lead bidder. The project will cover more than 6,108 railway stations across every state, city, town, and district of India where free public Wi-Fi networks have already been made available by RailTel.
Under the terms of the contract, the 3i Infotech-led consortium will have a revenue-sharing agreement along with minimum revenue assurance to RailTel.
“This project is a strategic fit towards expanding our edge computing capabilities,” says Thompson P Gnanam, Managing Director & Global CEO, 3i Infotech, adding: “With this win, we will aim to further expand our business in the telecom, media and entertainment verticals as we foray into media technology.”
