Mumbai: SugarBox has been chosen to provide Content on Demand (CoD) services for the Indian Railways. The Railway Board had entrusted RailTel with providing the CoDservice to passengers in trains and RailTel has selected SugarBox (Margo Networks Private Limited), as the Digital Entertainment Service Provider (DESP), to provide these services on trains and railway stations across the country. The project is expected to be completed by 2022 and will be implemented in trains pan India including suburban rail networks.
Using SugarBox, passengers will be able to useOTT Apps, Games, News Sites and E-learning platforms, without any buffers or data cost,both in paid and unpaid formats. In addition to this, passengers will also get access to E-commerce Apps and other hyperlocal services including last mile transport and food delivery.SugarBox is a hyperlocal CDN exposed over a local Wi-Fi network that eliminates the users’ dependence on mobile data and provides them seamless access to Apps, without any usage limits or mobile data charges.
Sharing more details about this, Rohit Paranjpe, CEO of Margo Networks, said, “It is a matter of great honour to have been chosen by RailTel. The Indian Railways has always been regarded as one of the most extensive rail networks in the world and connects all corners of the country. With the growing demand for value-added services among passengers, we believe that this will revolutionise the rail travel experience greatly. As a part of this, we will install SugarBox servers in trains across India, the work for which will begin by the second quarter of 2020 and is expected to be completed by 2022.” Elaborating on how this technology works, Rohit added further, “Digital media consumption has witnessed an exponential growth in India. Our research indicates that more and more people are accessing Apps while travelling. However, issues like patchy network and frequent interruptions in connectivity post as barriers to this experience and hence, they have to depend on limited downloaded content.SugarBox is a hyperlocal Content Distribution Network that allows users to access their favouriteApps without depending on mobile internet or WiFi.”
In December 2019, SugarBox also partnered with Hyderabad Metro and shortly after, with Chennai Metro to launch similar services for metro passengers in the respective cities.
