If latest reports are to be believed, 200 Bengaluru Metropolitan Transport Corporation (BMTC) Volvo buses will soon be getting Wi-Fi. In fact, you have to wait only two weeks to access Wi-Fi in BMTC Volvo buses. In the first phase, 200 BMTC buses heading to KIA, Electronics City and Whitefield, will be given this facility. Passengers will also be treated to an on-board smartphone-based entertainment system through an app. This is a very nice move by BMTC as hundreds of passengers get bored while travelling for hours through Bengaluru’s crawling traffic.
“Passengers from Majestic to Electronics City or Whitefield spend at least an hour (one-way) in buses to cover the distance. Our aim is to help them with internet connectivity so that they can either work or indulge in some entertainment. We have instructed the fir m providing Wi-Fi facility to ensure a minimum bandwidth speed of 7.2 mbps. There will also be a facility for passengers to directly plug in their personal electronic devices, such as smartphones, tablets or laptops to access Internet without streaming,” BMTC divisional traffic officer (commercial), Bialappa M Biradar, told The Times of India.
Moreover, this move by BMTC is also to compete with the app-based cabs/cab-based aggregators, who already provide free Wi-Fi to customers. BMTC hopes to bring back lost passengers. They are losing maximum passengers on the KIA, Electronics City and Whitefield routes. The Vayu Vajra project was yet another initiative by BMTC where it provided Wi-Fi services to Vayu Vajra buses in 2010. IN 2014, the service was extended to 60 buses. However, the private firm backed out of the
