As per industry sources, the government is aiming to increase public Wi-Fi access points by four times to 2 million by the end of 2021. At present, India has around 500,000 hotspot access points.
To this end, the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) has said that registrations for applying to offer these services under the recently launched Prime Minister Wi-Fi Access Network Interface (PM Wani) initiative will open by the first week of January 2021.
DoT has said that anyone can register as a public data operator aggregator (PDOA) by filling in a one-page form on the central registry portal.
To further facilitate this initiative, DoT has also created an instant messaging group with close to 70 stakeholders from the ecosystem including ISPs and ICT manufacturers that have tied up with it for the pilot project.
