PM- WANI

• Recently, the Union Cabinet approved setting up of public WiFi networks under PM-WANI.
• The move is aimed at helping accelerate the uptake of broadband Internet services.
• It was first recommended by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) in 2017.

Salient features of PM-WANI

• Under PM-WANI, WiFi will be provided through public data offices (PDOs)
• There shall be no license fee for providing Broadband Internet through these public Wi-Fi networks.
• The PDO, to be set up along the lines of public calling office, can be a mom-and-pop store in the area or the common services centre present in various small towns, gram panchayats, and villages in the country.
• The PDOs can either provide the internet on other own or lease it from other telecom and internet service providers

• Public Data Office (PDO): It will establish, maintain, and operate only WANI compliant Wi-Fi Access Points and deliver broadband services to subscribers.
• Public Data Office Aggregator (PDOA): It will be an aggregator of PDOs and perform the functions relating to Authorization and Accounting.
• App Provider: It will develop an App to register users and discover WANI compliant Wi-Fi hotspots in the nearby area and display the same within the App for accessing the internet service.
• Central Registry: It will maintain the details of App Providers, PDOAs, and PDOs. To begin with, the Central Registry will be maintained by C-DoT.
• While no registration would be required for PDOs, PDOAs and App Providers will get themselves registered with the Department of Telecommunications(DoT) through online registration portal (SARALSANCHAR; https://saralsanchar.gov.in) of DoT, without paying any registration fee. 

Significance of the project:

Public Wi-Fi networks will ‘democratize’ content distribution and broadband access to millions at affordable rates. This will be the UPI (unified payments interface) of connectivity services.

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