Connecting more people: on PM WANI

Context: Union Cabinet has recently approved Prime Minister wi-fi Access Network Interface (PM-WANI) which provides for public wi-fi- a low-cost option to reach unserved citizens and grow the economy.

PM-WANI: Bridging the digital divide

• Features:
  • Ensuring last mile connectivity: Aims to bridge the divide using wireless technologies by enabling public wi-fi data service: through small retail data offices.
  • No need to obtain licenses: will help in creating new avenues of income for small entrepreneurs (e.g. tea sellers).
  • Cost-effective: Unlike upcoming mobile technologies such as 5G (high investment in the new spectrum, connectivity equipment and regular subscriber fees).
• Advantages:
  • Economic benefits: TRAI noted that a 10% rise in net penetration led to a 1.4% increase in GDP.
  • Boosting transparency and interactivity: Internet access will also ease education, telehealth and agriculture extension, and bring greater accountability to government.
  • Complement data services sold by mobile telecom firms.
  • Improving internet penetration in rural India: Presently, 27.57 subscribers per 100 population in 2019.
  • Opens up opportunities: for community organisations, libraries, educational institutions, panchayats and small entrepreneurs to tap into a whole new ecosystem.
• Way forward:
  • The government must ensure robust service: along with protection of data integrity, transparency on commercial use of data, and security against cyberattacks.
  • To prevent monopolies: The government must also ensure true unbundling of hardware, software, apps and payment gateways in the WANI system, as advocated by TRAI.

Conclusion: Executed properly, the Public Data Offices (PDOs) of PM WANI can do what the PCOs did for phone calls, going well beyond ‘ease of doing business’ to genuinely empower citizens.