Updated: December 9, 2020 4:40:45 pm
Union Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad addresses a press conference on the cabinet handovers in New Delhi on Wednesday, December 9, 2020 (Express Photo by Tashi Tobgyal).
The Union cabinet headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday approved the establishment of public WiFi networks across the country in a bid to strengthen public WiFi service. This would be done by Public Data Office Aggregators (PDOA), who will provide the public WiFi service through Public Data Offices (PDO) throughout the country.
With this, the government hopes to accelerate the proliferation of broadband internet services through public WiFi networks in the country. There will be no license fee to provide broadband internet over these public WiFi networks, the government said in its statement.
The Public WiFi Access Network Interface will be known as PM-WANI, said Minister of Information Technology (IT) and Communications, Ravi Shankar Prasad, in making the announcement, adding that this will promote the growth of public WiFi networks. in the country and will unleash a huge WiFi Revolution.
“There would be no license, registration or fee for PDOs, which could be small shops or even Common Service Centers,” the minister told reporters.
This would imply a complete framework that involves multiple elements: PDO, PDOA and application providers.
The Cabinet also approved the laying of submarine fiber optic submarine cable to provide high-speed broadband to Lakshadweep, it said.
– with PTI inputs
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