Centre’s low-cost Wifi scheme still buffering
Launched in 2020 to serve rural population, PM-WANI fails to gather interest
Nearly two years after it was launched, the government has been able to activate only 132,000 hotspots as part of the Prime Minister’s Wifi Access Network Interface (PM-WANI). The scheme is central to the government’s plans to create up to 10 million public Wifi hotspots in India by the end of this year.
However, lack of interest in many areas, primarily due to low financial incentives, has contributed to the hesitancy in adopting the scheme, say officials apprised of the situation.
On the other hand, the sluggish pace of migrating Wifi hotspots to the PMWANI network by state-run entities, such as Bharat Sanchar Nigam (BSNL) and the Indian Railways, has also impeded progress, they add.
Aiming at massively expanding the public Wifi network in the country and providing low-cost mass digital connectivity to the underserved in rural areas and the urban poor, the flagship scheme was launched by the Department of Telecommunications (DOT) in December 2020.
According to the Public Wifi Partners (PWP) policy, local micro entrepreneurs in rural areas can open public data offices (PDOS) with BSNL, to make Wifi services available at affordable rates to the rural populace.
As of November 29, the total number of public WIFI hotspots registered on the network stood at 132,508, reveals data from the dashboard on the PM-WANI portal.
It shows 136 PDO aggregators (PDOAS) having gone live on the network.
PDOAS provide aggregation services, such as authorisation and accounting to PDOS, thereby facilitating them in providing services to the end-consumer.
Earlier this year, senior DOT officials had underscored the need for creating 10 million hotspots through the year as envisaged in the National Digital Communications Policy target, potentially generating 20-30 million job opportunities in the small- and medium-scale sectors.
Challenges aplenty
“As is often the case, schemes with a rural slant take more time. Local populations need to be convinced to adapt to new technical models. We have received reports of many rural participants complaining about financial incentives remaining undersized. We are looking into it,” says a senior official from DOT.
Earlier this year, officials had emphasised that BSNL would be migrating 30,000 of its hotspots to PM-WANI by June. Sources say the exercise has taken much longer than expected.
For adopting the PMWANI framework, BSNL registered itself as PDOA, while also integrating its core equipment with the technical systems of the Centre for Development of Telematics.
“BSNL’S foray into the scheme is expected to boost the telecommunications (telecom) service provider’s (TSP) chances of reaching a wider customer base. It will also help it leapfrog over the three private TSPS, in terms of establishing digital networks in the rural hinterland. But movement on the issue has been slower than planned,” says the official, quoted earlier.
Meanwhile, the Railways was also expected to migrate its Wifi network — present across 6,102 stations with a total of nearly 18,000 hotspots — by the end of June this year.
Railtel, a public sector undertaking under the Railways in charge of the exercise, had announced this in May, while launching the PM-WANI-BASED access of its public Wifi services across 100 railway stations.