TRAI Invites Companies To Set-Up Paid Public Wi-Fi Hotspots
The project hopes to do with data “what PCOs did for long distance calling”, TRAI said.
India's telecom regulator is inviting entities for a pilot programme to set up paid Wi-Fi access points across the country as it looks to boost internet penetration and make data more accessible.
The regulator will accept applications for setting up pay-as-you-go public data offices until July 25, said a media statement by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India. The initiative aims to establish an open architecture-based network interface which users will be able to discover and connect through a one click authentication and payment system.
The Wi-Fi Access Network Interface (WANI) represents an opportunity for data similar to what "PCOs did for long distance calling", the TRAI said in a separate report.
The Indian consumer is hungry for data, the question is who can provide her convenient and affordable access to the same.Telecom Regulatory Authority Of India
WANI will not be set up as a competitor to 4G technology, the regulator said while noting that internet penetration in India is still limited due to poor coverage and prohibitive pricing of cellular data by telecom operators.
"Public hotspots hold an important place in the last-mile delivery of broadband to users", the TRAI said in its report."Wi-Fi is much easier to scale than adding new LTE towers", the report added. The telecom regulator also said that the WANI project allows for offloading from telecom networks to ease congestion.
India has 31,000 public hotpots, compared to 1.3 crore in France and 1 crore in the U.S., according to TRAI’s data.
Rural Connectivity Boost
The WANI project could be crucial to Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Digital India initiative which aims to improve the reach of internet in the country, and connect rural areas with high-speed networks for faster delivery of public services.
Around 27 percent of India's population are internet users, according to the World Bank. In absolute numbers, the country has the second highest number of internet users after China, a figure which is expected to more than double in the next four years, according networking solutions provider Cisco Systems report.
Despite the rapid addition of internet users, penetration has remained low in India, especially in rural areas. While urban internet penetration stood at 59 percent, only 17 percent of India’s rural population had internet access in 2016, data from not-for-profit industry body Internet and Mobile Association of India showed.
Expanding rural internet connectivity has long been part of India's agenda. The Congress-led United Progressive Alliance government, in 2011, had launched the National Optical Fibre Network to boost broadband connectivity in rural areas, a programme which was carried forward by the incumbent government with a new name BharatNet.
In the Union Budget 2017-18, the allocation to BharatNet was stepped up to Rs 10,000 crore from Rs 6,000 crore earlier with the finance minister Arun Jaitley saying that BharatNet will power over 1.5 lakh gram panchayats with hotspots and access to digital services by March 2018.
However, publicly available data shows that figure is far from being achieved right now. As of July, just 22,333 gram panchayats had an optical fibre network up and running.
Who Can Apply?
- Any Indian entity having a PAN number
- Any consumer internet app provider
- Any software or service provider
