Umar Saif, Chairman Punjab Information Technology Board (PITB), has made an announcement via his social media accounts that Lahore, Rawalpindi and Multan will be getting free Public WiFi Access in important public places.
The free service will have a staged roll-out throughout Punjab with Lahore being the first one to get it. Meanwhile, Multan and Rawalpindi will be getting the service in the months to come. Afterwards, other cities will be included.
Information from news outlets states that preparations for the free WiFi service in Lahore have been completed. The free WiFi service will be available in a total of 115 public places in the city. These public places include 12 parks, 17 major market places, Metro bus stations and 20 different colleges and universities, railway stations and airports. The list of parks getting complete WiFI coverage are Bagh-E-Jinnah, Model Town Park, Hazoori Park and Gulshan-e-Iqbal Park.
The purpose of this project is to promote education in the province and help the public in staying connected to the digital world. Chief Minister Punjab has already approved the project.
We should mention that the same announcement was also made about a year ago. ProPakistani covered the announcement back in February 2015, however, the service was not launched and there was no news about the subject up until now. The project is as ambitious as it gets.
With electricity issues facing major cities and other problems seen throughout the country, it is not yet clear how effective it will be and what will be the public’s reaction to the service.