PM WANI: India’s New Public Wi-Fi Project

• 22 Dec 2020

Why in News

The Union Cabinet recently cleared a proposal by the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) to set up public Wi-Fi access network interfaces.

• The public Wi-Fi Access Network Interface, which will be called ‘PM-WANI’, was first recommended by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) in 2017.

Key Points

• PM-WANI: This will involve multiple players, including PDOs, PDOAs, app providers, and a central registry. PM-WANI infrastructure can be structured in the form of a pyramid.

• Need for a Public Wi-Fi Network in India:
  
  • To increase the proliferation of internet services in the country.
    
    • With PDOs - which will basically be small retail outlets across the length and breadth of the country - last mile connectivity is being aimed at.
  • To offer a cost-effective option for the common man.
    
    • Even in urban areas with sufficient mobile data coverage, the mobile internet tariffs are bound to increase.
  • To achieve the ‘Digital India’ vision.
    
    • From 2015 to June of 2020, India grew from 302 million internet subscribers to 750 million. That is a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 20%, making India one of the fastest growing internet markets in the world.
    • However, this statistic overshadows the quality of access. Only 23 million are wired internet subscribers.
    • If Digital India vision is to be achieved, there is a need to deliver a resilient and reliable connection to every Indian, so that they can have reliable access everywhere, at affordable price points.
    • According to Digital Quality of Life Index 2020, India was placed at 9^th position in Internet Affordability, outperforming even countries like the UK, the USA and China. While, for Internet Quality and E-infrastructure, India was almost at the bottom of the pillar placed at 78^th and 79^th (out of 85) positions respectively.
• Potential Benefits:
  
  • It has the potential to generate over 2 crore jobs and entrepreneurship opportunities, besides offering a cost-effective means of mass connectivity.
    
    • Given the National Digital Communications Policy goals of creating 1 crore public Wi-Fi hotspots by 2022, and with the present number being merely at 3.5 lakh, PM-WANI is expected to result in the creation of demand and scope for developing the components for this pan-India activity (Atmanirbhar Bharat).
  • PDOs can become local distribution centres for content.
    
    • Students in rural areas can access offline content without using bandwidth.
  • Combining this with the liberalisation of the Other Service Providers (OSPs) regulations, one can see that India is paving the way for digital SMEs (Small and Medium-sized Enterprises) to go online without the burden of onerous compliances.
  • It will further Ease of Doing Business and Ease of Living, as it will enable small shopkeepers to provide Wi-Fi service.
• Challenges:
  
  • Network Security:
    
    • Most Wi-Fi hotspots don’t encrypt information that is sent over the Internet and therefore aren’t secure. This could potentially lead to hacking or unapproved access to personal information on the device.
    • However, the Indian public Wi-Fi hotspot network envisages that the access to the Internet through these points will be permitted only through electronic KYC (Know Your Customer) and a mix of OTP (One-Time Password) and MAC ID-based authentication system, thereby minimising the risk of network security being compromised.
      
      • The MAC authentication method grants access to a secure network by authenticating devices for access to the network.
  • Viability of the Project:
    
    • The viability of public Wi-Fi networks in India has also been called into question with several tech-giants already having tried and failed.
    • In 2017, social media company Facebook had launched Express Wi-Fi. The project made little impact.
    • Google’s Station project, to provide free wi-fi in more than 400 railway stations across India and “thousands” of other public places, which was launched in 2015, was shut down earlier this year.
      • Google cited cheaper and more accessible mobile data, government initiatives to provide access to the Internet for everyone and the challenge of varying technical requirements and infrastructure.

Wi-Fi

• It is a networking technology that uses radio waves to allow high-speed data transfer over short distances.
• Wi-Fi allows Local Area Networks (LANs) to operate without cables and wiring, making it a popular choice for home and business networks.
• Wi-Fi can also be used to provide wireless broadband Internet access for many modern devices, such as laptops, smartphones, tablet computers, and electronic gaming consoles.
• Wi-Fi-enabled devices are able to connect to the Internet when they are near areas that have Wi-Fi access, called “hot spots”.
• According to Cisco Annual Internet Report (2018-2023), there will be nearly 623 million public Wi-Fi hotspots across the world by 2023, up from 169 million hotspots as of 2018.
  
  • Within this, the highest share of hotspots by 2023 will be in the Asia Pacific region at 46%. As per the calculations of the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI), based on Cisco’s estimates, India should have 100 million Wi-Fi hotspots by 2023.

Centre for Development of Telematics

• C-DOT was established in 1984 as an autonomous Telecom R&D centre of DoT, Government of India.
• It is a registered society under the Societies Registration Act, 1860.
• It is a registered ‘public funded research institution’ with the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research (DSIR), Ministry of Science & Technology.

Way Forward

• The citizen expects robust service, protection of data integrity, transparency on commercial use of data, and security against cyberattacks.
• The government must also ensure true unbundling of hardware, software, apps and payment gateways in the WANI system, as advocated by TRAI, to prevent monopolies. Existing public wi-fi options run on a limited scale by some entities compel consumers to pay through a single gateway app, underscoring the need for reform.

Source: IE