Hotspots for AII

Public Wi-Fi could provide ubiquitous broadband access

·        An ICRIER-BIF study pegs the internet’s contribution to India GDP at about 16% or $534 billion by 2020.

·        As per an Analysys Mason Report on public Wi-Fi released in July 2018, India’s GDP could increase by over $20 billion between 2017 and 2019, largely due to public Wi-Fi.

·        The National Digital Communications Policy (NDCP), 2018 has set ambitious targets for public Wi-Fi hotspots both in cities/metros as well as in rural areas under the Connect India mission.

·        It has  set a target of 5 million public Wi-Fi hotspots by 2020 and 10 million by 2022.

·        For this 2 initiatives have been proposed

o   NagarNet – for establishing 1 million hotspots in urban areas;

o   JanWiFi – for establishing 2 million hotspots in rural areas.

·        The Department of Telecommunications gazette notification to delicense 605MHz of the 5GHz band in line with developed economies such as the US, the UK and korea is a welcome step. Earlier only 50 Mhz was allotted.

·        It will increase the availability of unlicensed spectrum for public Wi-Fi by almost 6 times.

·        The new government recent plans to launch a network of interoperable 500,000 public Wi-Fi hotspots are laudable.