Tata Communications today announced a partnership with New Zealand’s Tomizone to use the company’s proprietary software supporting Wi-Fi services.

“There is a need for higher penetration of Wi-Fi hotspots where laptop and Wi-Fi enabled device users can connect to the internet. Currently there are less than 1000 Wi-Fi hotspots in India with Tata Indicom Wi-Fi having a share of over 50 per cent. As a result of this partnership, the number of such hotspots can grow manifold in a much shorter time and also give retail consumers to take part in this exciting new business opportunity,” said Prateek Pashine, COO, TCISL.

Tata Indicom’s broadband subscribers can have Wi-Fi hotspots installed at their premises instantly. Additionally they can lease out their unused bandwidth to others in neighbourhood and can gain credit on their account thereby subsidizing the price of the broadband connection.

Tomizone says that such a concept has resulted in increase in broadband penetration in Australia, China and New Zealand markets. For instance in UK a similar partnership helped in increasing the number of hotspots to more than half a million.

Girish Hiremath, Country Head of Tomizone India, welcomed the partnership with TCISL and heralded it as a smart cooperation model whereby both companies can deploy their unique strengths to quicken the availability of ubiquitous Wi-Fi coverage that is easy to use and affordable in India.