The Union Cabinet chaired by the Prime Minister, Shri Narendra Modi has given its approval for the proposal of DoT for setting up of Public Wi-Fi Networks by Public Data Office Aggregators (PDOAs) to provide public Wi-Fi service through Public Data Offices (PDOs) spread across length and breadth of the country to accelerate proliferation of Broadband Internet services through Public Wi-Fi network in the country.

Salient Features

    • PM-WANI eco-system will be operated by different players such as PDO, PDOA, App Provider, Central Registry.

    • Public Data Office (PDO): It will establish, maintain, and operate only WANI compliant Wi-Fi Access Points and deliver broadband services to subscribers.

    • Public Data Office Aggregator (PDOA): It will be an aggregator of PDOs and perform the functions relating to Authorization and Accounting.

    • App Provider: It will develop an App to register users and discover WANI compliant Wi-Fi hotspots in the nearby area and display the same within the App for accessing the internet service.

    • Central Registry: It will maintain the details of App Providers, PDOAs, and PDOs. To begin with, the Central Registry will be maintained by C-DoT.

    • While no registration would be required for PDOs, PDOAs and App Providers and they can get themselves registered with DoT through online registration portal (SARALSANCHAR; https://saralsanchar.gov.in) of DoT, without paying any registration fee.

    • Registration shall be granted within 7 days of the application.

    • There shall be no license fee for providing Broadband Internet through these public Wi-Fi networks.

    • The proposal will promote the growth of Public Wi-Fi Networks in the country and, in turn, will help in proliferation of Broadband Internet, enhancement of income and employment and empowerment of people.

Objectives

    • The step is expected to be more business friendly and in line with efforts for ease of doing business.

    • COVID-19 pandemic has necessitated delivery of stable and high speed Broadband Internet (data) services to an increasingly large number of subscribers in the country including areas which do not have 4G mobile coverage. This can be achieved by deployment of Public Wi-Fi.

    • The proliferation of public Wi-Fi will not only create employment but also enhance disposable incomes in the hands of small and medium entrepreneurs and boost the GDP of the country.

    • Proliferation of Broadband Services through public Wi-Fi is a step towards digital India and consequential benefit thereon such as enhanced incomes, employment, quality of life, ease of doing business etc.

TRAI had said that in order to plug the gap of high speed and reliable broadband connectivity in rural and remote areas, public WiFi was one of the best ways. 

As per TRAI in most major economies, for 50 to 70 per cent of their total usage time, mobile users use WiFi technology to communicate. In India, this figure is less than 10 per cent. Therefore, there is a dire need to exploit WiFi technology also for delivering broadband services at affordable prices. Hence to plug gaps of broadband connectivity, there should at least be a 100 million public WiFi hotspots in the country by 2023.

(The author is a trainer for Civil Services aspirants. The views expressed here are personal.)