Trey said public data offices (PDOs), especially smaller organisations such as local shops and retailers, generally have lower revenue potential, do not require ILL connections and cannot afford the high backhaul fees that apply to larger commercial organisations.
“The Authority proposes to charge PDOs a fee equivalent to the rate for retail broadband (FTTH) connections for the retail tariff capacity they are providing to their subscribers for the purpose of offering the PM-WANI (Wi-Fi Access Network Interface) scheme,” Mr Trai said.
According to the draft, the proposal will be reviewed two years after its implementation.
The National Digital Communications Policy, 2018 under the ‘Connect India’ mission had set a target of deploying 5 million public Wi-Fi hotspots by 2020 and 10 million public Wi-Fi hotspots by December 2025 to build a robust digital communications infrastructure.
The penetration of public Wi-Fi hotspots is very limited and far below the target, the Ministry of Telecommunications told Trai in November 2022. One of the reasons for the low penetration of PM-Wani is the very high cost of backhaul internet connectivity charged by telecom operators and internet service providers to PDOs.
As of July 22, 2024, there are over 2.07 million PM-Wani Wi-Fi hotspots installed across the country, with 199 PDO aggregators and 111 app providers.
