The project which was launched during the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) government was discontinued due to lack of funds.
Lahore (Pakistan Point News – 24th July, 2019) In a good news for the citizens of Lahore, the Punjab government has decided to restore Free WiFi project.
The Punjab Information and Technology board (PITB) and Planning and Development department has been tasked to restore free WiFi service for the city.
The project which was launched during the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) government was discontinued due to lack of funds.
The citizens have welcomed the Buzdar government’s decision to again launch this project.
The PITB had in 2017 installed WiFi routers in about 250 locations of Lahore, including metro stations, educational institutions, railway stations and other public spaces.
The Punjab WiFi Hotspots project through its resilient network enabled public and on-field government officials from different departments to utilize centrally maintained internet services in a relatively seamless manner at no cost.
Initially this facility was provided across around 200 public locations in Rawalpindi, Lahore and Multan.
Users were authenticated by their ID and mobile numbers, after which they received a code via SMS to connect to the internet. The free internet hotpots had gained popularity among the citizens.
To avoid data hogging, the internet subscription was made time-barred while video streaming and downloading were banned in order to maintain a positive usage of these facilities.
Time and location logs were also maintained for security purposes.
Each hotspot had a screen which displayed a total number of users connected, bandwidth and usage statistics.
