Public Wi-Fi Access Network Interface-PM-WANI

• Context: Public infrastructure is essential for enhancing the quality of public life and social capital. Guiding by her promise of DIGITAL INDIA and access to all the MINIMUM Internet GoI came out with PM-WANI. This topic is highy important for UPSC-PT and Mains.
• Union Cabinet cleared a document by the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) to set up public Wi-Fi access-PM-WANI network interfaces, first recommended by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) in 2017.

About

This will involve multiple players, including PDOs, PDOAs, app providers, and a central registry.

WHY WE NEED

• 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 CITIZENS. Even in urban areas with sufficient mobile data coverage, the mobile internet tariffs are bound to increase.
• To make the ‘Digital India’ vision successul. 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.

Benefits:
2 crore jobs and entrepreneurship opportunities, besides offering a cost-effective means of mass connectivity.

• To achieve National Digital Communications Policy goals of creating 1 crore public Wi-Fi hotspots by 2022
• Creation of demand and scope for developing the components for this pan-India activity Atmanirbhar Bharat.
• Local distribution centres for content. Students in backward and rural areas can access offline content without using bandwidth.
• Benefit to MSME and digital banking.
• It will further ease of Doing Business and Ease of Living, as it will enable small shopkeepers to provide Wi-Fi service.

Challenges:
Most Wi-Fi hotspots don’t encrypt information therefore threat of HACKING and personal information. But 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 viability of the project. 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.
• Challenge of Infrastructure and its maintenance.
• Awareness and reliability in condition of speed.

It is the time that government must 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.