The government to invest Rs 40 billion to set-up Wi-Fi hotspots in 2,50,000 villages

With an aim to speed-up the process of providing broadband connectivity across villages, the government is planning to invest Rs 40 billion to set-up Wi-Fi hotspots across 2,50,000 villages.

The project is being undertaken by the Ministry of Rural Development and will be closely linked with the National Optical Fibre Network (NOFN) project, which is being rolled by the Department of Telecommunications to expand high-speed broadband services to villages.

The initial funding for creating the Wi-Fi zones will be provided by the Universal Service Obligation (USO) Fund. In addition, the annual operational expenditure of about Rs 20 billion will be borne by the Ministry of Rural Development.

Under the project, an optical fibre network will be rolled out up to the gram panchayats and last-mile connectivity will be provided to villagers through Wi-Fi routers.