When it comes to Aam Aadmi Party announcing new projects, grand declarations are par for the course. So, it wasn’t any surprise when Delhi Dialogue Commission head Ashish Khetan make one on Friday. Khetan announced the first phase of free Wi-Fi for Delhi, which begins with a project for East Delhi and is set to be operational by the end of 2016, with this statement: “East Delhi’s Wi-Fi is not only India’s, but world’s biggest Wi-Fi project of its kind.”

Free Wi-Fi in the national capital was one of the most popular and ambitious promises made by AAP during Delhi Assembly polls in 2015. The delay in the implementation of the project has attracted criticism from both Dilliwalas and the Opposition. With Khetan’s announcement, the plan seems on track, but will it measure up to the expectations of the people?

Khetan said a total of 1,000 hotspot zones would be created at 571 locations in East Delhi. There will be three access points in each hotspot zone. Another 3,000 access points can be added according to usage in the area. “One hundred and twenty people will be able to login to use high-speed Internet at any given point of time,” he said. For starters, the limited number of maximum subscribers allowed per hotspot zone is unlikely to qualify as world’s largest Wi-Fi project.

But will the new project be able to cater to the basic Internet needs of Delhiites? Here, are few fundamental facts.

AAP says approximately 16 hotspot zones will available per square kilometre. East Delhi constitutes about 10 per cent of Delhi’s total population. According to Census 2011, the population of East Delhi was 17, 09,346. At a given point of time, only 1.2 lakh subscribers will be able to get on the hotspot and use Internet. This amounts to an average of seven Internet subscribers allowed per hundred population, which is much below the national average of present subscribers.

According to data released by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI), the number of Internet subscribers per 100 population (at the end of March 2015) was 24. Interestingly, in Delhi, the number of Internet subscribers per 100 population was as high as 89.24—much higher than what the Wifi project can provide.

Moreover, there are unanswered questions related to free data and Internet speed. “Exact definition of free data, [Internet] speed and SLAs [service level agreement] will be in the tender document,” said Khetan, steering around these details.

Delhi government is also going to install common optic fibre to enable Internet speed in gigabytes to every household. While the common fibre project will be handled by PWD (Public Works Department), the Information Technology Department of Delhi government will be responsible for East Delhi Wi-Fi project.  Can AAP’s ambitious project live up to its hype?