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Wi-Fi Gen Aims to Make Free Wi-Fi Hotspots Across Pakistan

Tuesday, 3 February 2015


With more smart devices penetration, the data consumption is going up all over the world. Despite the availability of number of technologies and affordable packages, people still prefer to enter into a Wi-Fi hotspot for free internet experience.
Wi-FiWi-Fi hotspot is any place that is covered via open Wi-Fi. This could be a café, a restaurant, a shopping malls and so on.
Establishment of Wi-Fi hotspots is the need of the hour. This can be done via partnerships among various stakeholders including Internet Service Providers, Telco’s, business community and government in setting up. For that, we’ll need new companies that can provide related services.
More Magazine met Bilal Athar, founder of a similar new service provider called Wi-Fi Gen. Bilal is a former corporate trainer, high school dropout and young entrepreneur.
We asked Bilal about Wi-Fi Gen’s service, its works and dimension. He believes that every single customer needs Wi-Fi in affordable cost. He believes his product can provide such a service where cost will be saved by creating a win-win situation between users and internet providers.
Here’s how the system works, Wi-Fi Gen simply picks a conventional Wi-Fi access point from the market, integrates it with a smart software and install the network in public places.
Normally, people ask for a network ID and password for experiencing Wi-Fi but this system will provide an alternate and easier way.
 
With Wi-Fi Gen, when a user clicks on the free Wi-Fi connection, he/she will not be asked for a password, rather a new page will be loaded with three options for logging in; through Facebook, Twitter or an email account.
The system provides a dashboard to the client business. With it, they will get useful analytics about the customers, such as how frequently a particular customer return to the cafe, percentage of the new customers, the ratio between the male and female customers etc.
All in all, customers will get free internet and businesses will get brand recognition. It’s a win-win situation for everyone.
 
How secure this Wi-Fi Gen is since customers will be logging in through their social media info. Bilal explained, “Facebook and Twitter provide their API’s so user’s passwords can never reach the business owner”.
“Log-in interface will work in the same way as anyone logs into a Facebook game”, he further added.
Bilal believes that travelers usually don’t know about the local data plans. They only want free Wi-Fi hotspots in cafes and restaurants and shops everywhere else. Wi-Fi Gen’s main focus is to help travelers provide free internet. In return, they would be asked to watch a short advertisement on their device. May be a 10 seconds ad.
As a part of their future plan, they are planning to install free Wi-Fi hotspots in New Zealand in three places. There, Wi-Fi Gen will be using FTTH and in further future, they might have to use the 3G and 4G connectivity.
He does believe that more companies similar to that of Wi-Fi Gen would be created as soon as his company sets a model. He also gave the example of the internet.org that how Facebook and other tech giants intends to empower the world with the internet. He added that no one is going to provide absolutely free internet to everyone.
Bilal is going to test the Beta not in Pakistan! They are going to do it in New Zealand. He does immediately add that Wi-Fi Gen will come to Pakistan as soon as it is out of the beta version. Islamabad is the first city they plan to roll out Wi-Fi Gen in the initial phase.
Such projects cost money, so we asked about their investment. They have already spent more than 14K USD in the development and reached the beta stage of the product. Now, they are in search of someone who would give them 7 thousand USD before March this year. They are all set to enter the market in March.
 
Returns over the investment can be huge here. Bilal says that he has already signed with a New Zealand based reseller on a deal of covering 500 customers within six months. If they would manage to grab these 500 customers in 6 months, they would go to Australia as well.
He still hasn’t found a reseller for Pakistan, therefore, planning to take on marketing himself. He says this is the reason they skipped Pakistan initially because people don’t invest on technological projects. He is disheartened by the IT-literacy level in Pakistan as people sometimes panic on the Facebook login screen. He does however, has found admirers such as Serena Hotel Islamabad. The five star hotel has shown huge interest in their project. He believed that Pakistani market will get ready for this service by 2018.

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