Ola announces in-cab Auto-Connect WiFi service

Taxi hailing app Ola, in a bid to lure customers away from its competitor Uber has announced Auto-Connect WiFi, a WiFi serivce that enables customers to automatically connect to a WiFi network when they get into a cab.

You'll be able to connect to WiFi network in an Ola cab after a one-time authentication, instead of entering credentials every time. When you book a Prime ride, you'll receive an sms from OLA with a unique one-time WiFi login credentials. After providing the necessary details you'll be able to connect to WiFi in all your future Prime rides.

Currently, the Auto-Connect WiFi is available on Ola Prime cars for free and will soon be available across all categories including Micro, Mini and auto-rickshaws. It is not known whether Ola will charge for the service on budget categories. It will roll out in 102 cities, and for starters, Ola will offer the service with 3G and 4G speeds in Delhi, Mumbai and Bengaluru.

For comparison, Ola's main competitor in India, Uber has been slow to offer WiFi despite launching the service last year. Uber's WiFi service is restricted mostly to Mumbai and is offered to premium segment UberBLACK.

Ola sees the Auto-Connect WiFi service as a public Internet project, similar to Google's free WiFi at India's train stations.