Bengaluru: Uber, one of the valued startup in taxi services, is now expanding the service of its pilot project to five cities, including Bengaluru, Delhi (NCR) and Hyderabad. Whereas Ola, another cab service provider has started offering free Wi-Fi services on Ola Prime and the soon-to-be-launched Ola Shuttle.
"The cab firms are looking at 80% of their fleet being fitted with Wi-Fi by the end of this year," sources informed TOI.
Uber too is planning to own mobile payment wallet in India soon.
Though Uber has a tie-up with Airtel to use its 4G networks, Ola, too, is making use of the country's largest mobile player. These cab providers foot the bill of the device as well as the data usage.
A 4G dongle that generates a Wi-Fi hotspot up to 100-metre radius with a device-specific password is used by them. The device that gives speed between 10-15 mbps, costs around Rs 2,300.
Uber, is introducing free Wi-Fi at the national level for the very first time in the world. India already has the second largest operations for Uber, with the service available across 22 cities and 1.65 lakh drivers on its rolls.
"It is the principle behind Uber experience that the consumers can get more things done while in a cab, be it getting their work done before meetings for professionals or catching up with social media for students, leaving more time with family at home. Network in India can be a bit sloppy at times, and this gives reliable high-speed internet," says Karun Arya, Uber spokesperson for South Asia and India.
