O-zone WiFi : Aims to Reach Indians with WiFi

Delhi headquater-ed Ozone WiFi is an ISP of India with ISP cat A license. Ozone was founded by Sanjeev Bobby Sarin in 2007. Unlike other ISPs, Ozone is unique in a way that it offers internet services over WiFi. Anybody who have WiFi enabled devices can access internet over Ozone WiFi. Presently Ozone is the largest public WiFi service provider in the country.

In April 2011, Ozone was in talks with several mobile operators - Vodafone, Airtel, Aircel and Idea for data offload to its WiFi network. The deal did not happen.

In January 2012, Google partnered with Ozone to promote Google+. When a person is on Ozone Wifi he would have free unlimited access on Google+ and access to Youtube (specific videos free for 10 min/day). The deal worked for 90 days.



On November, 2014 Ozone signed an agreement to Ericsson to deploy later's small cells on Ozone's WiFi network. This is a part of Ozone's extensive network expansion. Currently Ozone has 2000 hotspots active across the country, and in next 3 years Ozone is targeting to have 30,000 WiFi hotspots.

The company, by 2015, has installed 6500 access points and 1500 public hot spots that enjoy an average footfall of 42-45 million people, ranging between 35,000 to 40,000 users per day. Ozone has seized the first mover advantage by locking in a number of high footfall premium locations across India, and entering into attractive long term exclusive contracts with blue-chip landlords, such as Costa Coffee, Yum Group (KFC, Pizza Hut), Coffee Bean, McDonalds, Mumbai, DLF, GVK, Haldiram's, Oberoi Group, and a strong pipeline of national and international retail chains.

As content is becoming the king, Ozone partnered with Speed Fetch, world’s fastest download application using which one can download a full HD 3 hour movie in a quick flash. Speed Fetch will be exclusively available at Ozone hotspots.

In November 2014 there was talk of the air that nascent UK firm New Call Telecom, part of the New Sparta Group of companies, is picking up a substantial stake in Ozone.  FYI In 2008 New York and London based, Len Blavatnik-backed Access Industries invested in Ozone Networks.  

New Call Telecom also has investments in Nimbuzz - a multi messenger chat application that developed in India. Both Ozone and NCT are waiting for FIPB's approval. In December 2014 NCT also bought London-based wholesale voice dealer Wave Crest. New Call also planned to acquired Delhi based Nextra Teleservices. New Call planned to invest $100 million (about Rs 617 crore) in India initially towards strategic acquisitions of four mid-level telecom companies to enter fixed line connectivity, Wi-Fi and messaging domains.

Homepage - Ozonewifi.com | Facebook page | LinkedIn | Blogspot (last updated on Aug 13, 2009) | 

Ozone now offers 30 minutes of free usage on its WiFi network. Check the user review here. 

Recently the company has launched a new App - Ozone WiFi which will connect your phone automatically to its WiFi network. Ozone WiFi App will be reviewed very soon. 

Interestingly after Jio's 4G launch in 2016, Ozone slowly withdrawn from most of the market. I guess that New Call Telecom (Key people Nigel Eastwood, CEO & Jerome Booth, Chairman) did not make significant investment towards Ozone's growth. Ozone's COO Pallab Mitra also left Ozone to join Airtel after New Cell's acquisition of Ozone. Basically Ozone vanished from Indian market post-acquisition. 

As per LinkedIn Eastwood served as Group CEO of Ozone from May 2014 - Mar 2016. So it seems Ozone went nowhere after March 2016. He was attached with New Call India till January 2022. He joined Kati Patang Beer as Board Advisor since January 2018. New Call's broadband service of UK, Fuel Broadband was acquired by Post Office Telecoms in August 2017. 

By the end of 2015 Jio started its 4G services and from September 5, 2016 Jio announced its mainstream journey. As 4G data hits the mobile, and that's too free initially, the demand of WiFi hotspots goes down. Ozone may died in 2016.