Ola offers Wi-Fi connectivity to its autorickshaws

Commuting in autorickshaws is now fun with free Wi-Fi on board for those who book their rides using the cab hailing app Ola. Ola is a SoftBank backed company and it said it has piloted its proprietary “Auto-Connect Wifi’ feature for ‘Ola Autos’ across major cities and will also extend it to 73 cities over the next few weeks. This includes the four metros as well as Ahmedabad, Pune, Jaipur, Chandigarh and Hyderabad, among others. With Auto-Connect Wifi, the company is reinventing the 3 wheeler segment and enabling a comfortable and connected experience for the customers.

With Ola’s Auto Connect Wifi, the experience will be built on the foundations of key initiatives by the government such as digital India. It is a first of a kind innovation and Ola wants to improve the quality of time spent on the road in addition to helping the users with easy access across the country. This initiative will ensure that the users have a comfortable and convenient autorickshaw ride. The company has not disclosed any investment details or the number of vehicles this service will now be available on. Ola recently raised $1.1 billion funding from Tencent and others and has said that it will make strategic investments in technology, supply and innovation for the transportation in the country.

Ola had launched a Wi-Fi feature in 2015 for the Prime category users. The users of the select membership program can also use the Wi-Fi in Mini and Micro vehicles, which are the affordable category vehicles of the company. With this initiative, the ‘Select’ users will be able to connect with the WiFi and enjoy a seamless experience while onboard the autorickshaw. For the first time users, they will have to tap on WiFi on the Track your ride screen in order to use the Wifi. Also, the WiFi will be connected once the Ola auto ride starts.

It will be interesting to see how users enjoy the experience of a seamless connectivity in the autorickshaw. It will also be important to see how competition reacts to the strong marketing move by Ola.