India’s public WiFi coverage falls way short of target
WiFi was pitched by the government as a key driver of broadband coverage, the results aren’t very flattering.India has missed its public WiFi hotspots rollout target by a mile. The count is a paltry 0.5 million, a far cry from the 10-million target by the end of 2022 outlined in the National Digital Communications Policy-2018.
On a per million population, the number of public WiFi hotspots is 175 times that of India in the UK, 50 times in the US and 75 times in China, according to data collated by global market research agency Statista. At this rate, industry experts, executives and analysts say India is likely to also miss its more ambitious 50 million public WiFi hotspots target by 2030 set out in the latest Bharat 6G Vision document.
A key reason behind the failure of public WiFi, industry executives said, is the exorbitant Internet leased line charges — ranging between Rs 4 lakh and Rs 8 lakh a year — that telecom operators or Internet service providers (ISPs) charge public data offices (PDOs) and public data office aggregators (PDOAs). The PDOs and PDOAs are the key unlicensed entities tasked with buying bulk Internet bandwidth and delivering public WiFi services to end-users.
But telcos are in no mood to relent. They said amid the surge in data consumption with 5G, their immediate priority is using their bandwidth and fibre resources optimally to deliver quality broadband connectivity to their own customers at affordable rates before considering any price cuts for outsiders (such as PDOs/PDOAs) towards public WiFi.
Experts at the Broadband India Forum (BIF) are not convinced. They assert that the PM-WANI public WiFi programme can easily boost the country’s digital infrastructure in rural areas and increase fast
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