The Uttar Pradesh state government is planning to introduce public data office (PDO) booths at all authorised ration shops. The move is aimed at connecting people with high-speed Wi-Fi service under Prime Minister’s Wi-Fi Access Network Interface (PM-WANI).
The PDO booths is expected to be useful in congested and densely populated areas for stable and high speed internet services through public Wi-Fi. The service will reportedly be introduced as a pilot project in 10 districts of Lucknow, Kanpur, Meerut, Muzaffarnagar, Ghaziabad, Gautam Budh Nagar, Agra, Gorakhpur, Varanasi and Ayodhya.
The development comes in the backdrop of reluctance of telecom companies to provide wireless computer network in rural and remote areas as they have to pay hefty licence fee for bandwidth. Moreover, the government has also encouraged individuals to set up such a service as such a setup would need an investment of Rs 20,000 only for the entire set up to start the service. Meanwhile, for public Wi-Fi service, ration shop owner can apply for modem or by logging on to the website.
