WiFi, Google, Train Station WiFi,
Telecom regulator Trai on Friday proposed to reduce broadband connection charges for public data offices, which provide public Wi-Fi services, on par with retail users as the number of public Wi-Fi spots in the country is far below the target number envisaged by the government.
In the explanatory note to the draft Telecom Tariff (Seventh Amendment) Order, 2024, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) has found that the annual tariff for a 100 Mbps internet leased line is 40-80 times higher than that of 100 Mbps fibre-to-the-home (FTTH) broadband connection for retail users.
Trai said it is of the view that public data offices (PDOs), specifically small-scale units like local shops and retailers, generally have low revenue potential and do not need an ILL connection nor can they afford the high backhaul charges levied on large commercial entities.
“The authority proposes that for the purpose of providing PM-WANI (Wi-Fi Access Network Interface) scheme, PDOs may be charged a fee equivalent to the rates for retail broadband (FTTH) connections, for the capacities for which the service providers offer such retail rate to the subscribers,” Trai said.
The proposal will be reviewed two years after its implementation, according to the draft.
The National Digital Communications Policy 2018, under the ‘Connect India’ mission, had set a target of enabling deployment of 5 million public Wi-Fi hotspots by 2020 and 10 million by December 2025 to create a robust digital communications infrastructure.
In November 2022, the Department of Telecom shared with Trai that the proliferation of public Wi-Fi hotspots is quite limited and is way below the targets.
The DoT had cited one of the reasons for the low proliferation of PM-Wani as the extremely high cost of backhaul Internet connectivity charged by telecom operators and Internet service providers to PDOs.
As of July 22, 2024, there were over 2.07 lakh PM-Wani Wi-Fi hotspots deployed in the country and 199 PDO aggregators and 111 application providers.
(Only the headline and image of this report may have been reworked by Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
First published: August 23, 2024 | 11:30 PM IS
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