- Under the current telecom policy, the government aims to set up one crore public WiFi hotspots across the country by the year 2022.
- The Telecom Secretary has called upon WiFi equipment makers to lower the cost of their products so that Prime Minister’s WiFi Access Network Interface scheme (PM-WANI) can be expanded.
- Public WiFi hotspots have the massive potential of acting as the fuel needed for the development of rural economies.
- The PM-WANI portal states that over 56,000 WiFi hotspots have already been set up across the country until now.
- BIF has also announced the launch of the BIF Connectivity Accelerator Programme in partnership with Meta (previously known as Facebook).
Under the current telecom policy, the government’s aim is to set up one crore public WiFi hotspots across the country by the year 2022. This has the potential of creating two to three crore jobs according to a senior government official.
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Telecom Secretary calls upon WiFi equipment makers to lower product costs
K Rajaraman, the Telecom Secretary spoke at the Broadband India Forum (BIF). In his speech, he called upon WiFi equipment makers to lower the cost of their products so that our Prime Minister’s WiFi Access Network Interface scheme (PM-WANI) can be expanded. This scheme aims to set up WiFi hotspots across the country.
“Given by conservative estimate of each hotspot enabling 2-3 direct and indirect employment opportunities, the creation of 10 million hotspots as per the NDCP (National Digital Communications Policy) target by 2022 would potentially generate 20-30 million job opportunities in the small and medium scale sectors,” Rajaraman said.
Effect on the rural economy
Public WiFi hotspots have the massive potential of acting as the fuel needed for the development of rural economies. Not only will this propel socio-economic growth but it will also provide employment opportunities to many rural entrepreneurs.
How to make PM-WANI successful?
Rajaraman has also stated that sprawling manufacturing units will be required to produce millions of access points for for PM-WANI which according to him is at the core of Atmanirbhar Bharat mission and would would therefore lead to more job creation.
According to the PM-WANI portal over 56,000 WiFi hotspots have already been set up across the country until now. Rajaraman has stated that he wants more entrepreneurs to join the PM-WANI program facilitated by C-DoT.
BIF Connectivity Accelerator Programme
BIF has also announced the launch of the BIF Connectivity Accelerator Programme in partnership with Meta (previously known as Facebook) to make it easy for startups and entrepreneurs to build innovative technologies and connectivity solutions and also support the public WiFi ecosystem.
“This virtual programme will give startups the opportunity to partner with BIF to help develop relevant use cases and help scale their businesses. We appeal to all stakeholders to come together and join hands with us to expeditiously and effectively implement this national mission,” BIF president TV Ramachandran said.
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