Google closes free Wi-Fi program worldwide

Google Station offered free Wi-Fi in more than 5,000 locations worldwide.
Google has announced the closure of the Google Station program. The first reports of the closure of the project appeared last week, and now Google has officially confirmed the news on its blog.

As part of the project, Google provided free Wi-Fi access in public places – at 400 stations in India and more than 5 thousand places around the world, including Brazil, South Africa, Mexico, Thailand and Vietnam. The project was launched in 2016.

In an interview with TechCrunch, Caesar Sengupta, head of Google’s payment services and Next Billion Users project, said the program was closing because Google was having trouble expanding further.

Each of the Google partners has different technical requirements and infrastructure requirements, which makes the project difficult. At the same time, Google tried to recoup the project by starting to display ads during authorization. In addition, Sengupta noted that the increased availability of low-cost LTE, especially in India, has made the program less popular.

The good news is that most Google Station outlets will continue to provide free Wi-Fi. So, in India there will remain RailTel access points, all 400 pieces.