August 2024

Approved by the then Union Cabinet, headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, in December 2020.

It proposed the set up of public Wi-Fi hotspots across the country through public data offices (PDOs)—which could even be a local kirana shop. 

Expected to increase employment for small and micro-entrepreneurs, providing them with an additional source of income.

Nearly four years after it was launched, the Prime Minister’s Wi-Fi Access Network Interface (PM-WANI) scheme to set up public Wi-Fi hotspots across the country to increase internet penetration has failed to garner much interest.

According to data from the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI), only 2,07,642 PM-Wani Wi-Fi hotspots had been deployed across the country as of 22 July. This falls well short of the target of 50 lakh public Wi-Fi hotspots by 2020 and 1 crore (10million) by December 2022 set by the National Digital Communications Policy (NDCP), 2018.

For Digital India 2030 mobile and broadband policy objectives, the Bharat 6G Vision had set the goal of 1 crore public Wi-Fi hotspots by 2022 and 5 crore by 2030.

In its 2020 recommendations, titled ‘Proliferation of Broadband through Public Wi-Fi Networks’, TRAI also noted that world over, Wi-Fi hotspots are used to fill gaps in cellular coverage.

In most major economies, mobile users use Wi-Fi technology to communicate for 50-70 percent of their total usage time. However, in India, this figure is less than 10 percent. 

A key reason why the PM-WANI scheme has been relatively unsuccessful is the significantly high Internet leased line charges that TSPs and ISPs charge PDOs.

Many times TSPs/ISPs insisted that PDOs connect public Wi-Fi access points using the expensive internet leased line instead of regular FTTH (fibre-to-the-home) broadband connection.

mobile data rates were much cheaper.

In its August 2024 consultation paper titled ‘Tariff for PM-Wani scheme’, TRAI pointed out that the PDOs pay at least 40-80 times more for 100 Mbps of internet leased line compared to what consumers pay for 100 Mbps of fibre broadband connection.

It is proposed that the tariff for the PDOs be kept the same as that for a retail broadband connection to help the proliferation of Wi-Fi hotspots under PM-WANI. Print