R ARIVANANTHAM
CHENNAI, MAR 2
When the world shrinks to a village due to the advent of Internet of Things (IOT), everyone wanted to spend every minute of their life judiciously. To make this possible, Mumbai-based entrepreneur Rohit Paranjpe, CEO & Co-founder, Sugarbox democratized the digital content to reach out to those on their toes in Metro trains and also during air travel at no cost with his innovative make-in-India technology.
People who commute for long hours are an interesting option to catch onto all those missed calls or content in the digital universe. Add to this the benefit that the Chennai Metro Rail Ltd (CMRL) facilitated for lakhs of commuters in the city, reducing their commute time and cost. In addition to this, CMRL commuters could access digital information and services, without any interruption or no extra cost.
- Putting commuting time purposefully, Metro commuters in Chennai are driving value from Make-in-India technology
- Sugarbox partners with Chennai Metro Rail Ltd to deliver, seamless, hyperlocal digital experiences while in-transit from 2020
- SugarBox is a local Wi-Fi network that eliminates the users’ dependence on mobile data and provides them an uninterrupted access to apps
- In the past 15 months, over 8 lakh metro commuters have consumed over 70,000 GB digital content (November 2021 to mid-Feb 2023) at no cost.
- Consumers can download the Sugarbox App in their smart phone and enjoy the contents while on travel and at all the Metro Rail Stations in Chennai.
- Sugarbox offers this service in all the Air Asia flights and mulls to expand it other airlines and also airports.
In 2020, CMRL and Sugarbox, an Indian tech start-up, collaborated to offer seamless and affordable in-transit digital access, for commuters travelling in the metro. At present across the 52 trains, this hyper-local cloud technology facilitated access to various digital content and services for passengers, without incurring any additional data cost.
With over 70%, spending time connected to their handsets during commute, the desire to remain connected has now become an essential. Commuters on CMRL are now able to access a range of content such as games, movies, entertainment shows, podcasts, news and more, without incurring additional data cost. Apart from seamless streaming, the content can also be downloaded for viewing later (at another location). This patented technology offers a streaming speed of 100MbPS enabling seamless, buffer-free hyper-local digital experiences, for commuters.
Commuters can enjoy the content in their local languages such as shopping information, movies, Television serials, sports etc. New products added in Sugarbox content will be displayed on top of their content.
Consumers can download the Sugarbox App in their smart phone and enjoy the contents while on travel and at all the Metro Rail Stations in Chennai. Inside all metros. Outside the metro train, on the stations, the WiFI connectivity works till the time the metro train doesn’t leave the station. Once the metro train leaves the station, the connectivity to be Sugarbox App won’t work, and during this time, commuters an enjoy the downloaded content.
Sugarbox offers this service in all the Air Asia flights and mulls to expand it other airlines and also airports.
Rohit Paranjpe, CEO & Co-founder, Sugarbox in a statement said, “We are working towards democratizing digital access and ensuring that relevant content reaches audiences, at any time and any place. This partnership with CMRL, is a step forward in offering commuters the best standards in metro travelling. Any commuter, irrespective of their socio-economic background, just needs a smart phone to consume digital content on Sugarbox. Our technology solution catches static content from brand partners closer to the end-user. Thus, augmenting digital access for audiences in connected, under-connected, and unconnected geographies”.
It is estimated that in an average travel time of 66 minutes, a commuter on an average spends 73% time on phone. While around 54% are consuming static digital content, such as watching movies, around 81% face poor connectivity experience.
