Saritha Rai

When it comes to connecting India’s population to the Internet, Google Chief Executive Officer Sundar Pichai is having better luck than his Facebook counterpart, Mark Zuckerberg. Google began offering free Wi-Fi at about two dozen train stations in the country earlier in 2016, and now has 2 million people using the service each month, Pichai said. Millions more will gain access as the service expands to 100 locations by the year end. The search provider’s goal is to reach 400 stations. Facebook had also sought in 2015 to get people online by covering the cost for mobile users to connect to select websites and services on their phones. That effort, called Free Basics, was blocked in February by India’s telecommunication regulator. The ban was a setback for Zuckerberg, who had visited India to promote the program, which was designed for people who can’t afford expensive mobile-data charges.

Google, Facebook and other providers of web services are all flocking to India to amass their next billion users and get them to adopt their products first. By targeting train stations and offering unfettered access, Google has been able to leap ahead. Both are seeking to maximize eyeballs for their revenue-generating ads in the country of 1.3 billion, according to C.S. Rao, chairman of QuadGen Wireless Solutions Inc., a wireless engineering services company which has more than 2,000 public Wi-Fi hotspots in the country. “Their popular apps are seen to have huge growth potential in a country with youthful demographics and good technology literacy,” Rao said.