• Download a copy of the consultation paper here. 

India has roughly 4.1 lakh public Wi-Fi hotspots under the Prime Minister Wi-Fi Access Network Interface (PM-WANI) as of April 2026, a fraction of the 10 million that the government targeted for 2022. The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) is now, in its consultation paper on Proliferation of Public Wi-Fi Networks, asking whether it is time to fundamentally rethink how public Wi-Fi is built, funded, and experienced. Comments are open until May 25, 2026, and counter-comments will be accepted until June 8, 2026.

Why TRAI says regulation needs a reset

The paper identifies several structural barriers holding back public Wi-Fi in India:

• Deployment gap: The National Digital Communications Policy (NDCP) 2018 aimed to deploy 10 million hotspots by 2022. PM-WANI deployments stand at roughly 4.1 lakh, while Telecom Service Providers (TSPs) and Internet Service Providers (ISPs) together account for only 55,483 hotspots and about 1.59 lakh access points.
• Free Wi-Fi expectation: At an average of Rs 7.87 per gigabyte as of December 2025, cheap mobile data has conditioned users to treat internet access as a near-zero cost, undermining the viability of paid or freemium Public Data Office (PDO) models.
• Mobile data competition: The multi-step PM-WANI login process requires downloading an app, registering, verifying an OTP, and purchasing a voucher, creating a switching cost that deters users even when hotspots are available.
• Last-mile connectivity: Despite 42.36 lakh route kilometres of Optical Fibre Cable (OFC) laid nationwide and BharatNet connecting 2.18 lakh Gram Panchayats, last-mile fibre to Wi-Fi access points remains thin and expensive.
• Security and trust deficits: Users are sceptical of open networks managed by PDOs, particularly for financial transactions, and they default to the perceived safety of their mobile connections.
• Authentication friction: The Department of Telecommunications (DoT) OTP mandate introduced in 2009 persists under PM-WANI, and inconsistent implementation across PDOs worsens an already friction-heavy experience.
• No seamless roaming: PM-WANI hotspots operate as isolated, provider-specific networks, forcing users to repeatedly log in even within the same city.
• Low awareness on both sides: Users often do not know where hotspots are, while many potential PDO operators remain unaware that registration requires no licence and that it can generate supplementary income.

Role of the Central and State Governments

• For outdoor deployments, the paper recommends streamlining Right of Way (RoW) access to street furniture, utility poles, and Closed-Circuit Television (CCTV) infrastructure, and introducing bulk power billing that aggregates electricity consumption across multiple installations into a single connection.
• For indoor deployments, the paper recommends neutral-host network models for shared in-building Wi-Fi and the inclusion of Digital Connectivity Infrastructure (DCI) in the Model Building Bye-Laws (MBBL) and the National Building Code (NBC), on par with water and fire safety requirements.
• On funding, the paper recommends differentiated frameworks for rural, urban, and high-footfall areas. Digital Bharat Nidhi (DBN) funds are proposed for last-mile gaps, and the Special Assistance to States for Capital Investment (SASCI) guidelines dated March 27, 2026, link Rs 4,000 crore in interest-free loans to States implementing the Telecom RoW Rules, 2024.
• State government institutions are recommended to act directly as Public Data Office Aggregators (PDOAs) under PM-WANI, aggregating PDOs from Panchayats, Common Service Centres (CSCs), municipalities, and health facilities. 
• States are recommended to use BharatNet fibre as a common rural backhaul layer and to promote shared underground duct networks in urban areas, based on Gurugram’s Smart City PPP. The paper notes that only 39 of 100 Smart City Mission cities have launched public Wi-Fi despite relevant fibre infrastructure already being in place.
• The paper recommends District-level RoW committees, to be chaired by the District Magistrate and including DoT, the Public Works Department (PWD), municipal corporations, and utility service providers.

Where local bodies fit

• Local bodies are recommended to make streetlights, bus shelters, and public buildings available for the deployment of Wi-Fi access points, and to coordinate fibre rollout alongside other civic works to reduce duplication of costs.
• Local bodies should conduct backhaul adequacy assessments, use DBN funds to address gaps, and support potential BharatNet Udyamis (BNUs) in rural areas to extend the fibre network from Gram Panchayat nodes to habitations.
• To expand PDO participation, local bodies are recommended to run awareness campaigns and offer in-kind support such as access to municipal assets, concessional power supply, and equipment space to shops, small enterprises, and Residential Welfare Associations (RWAs).
• On the demand side, local bodies are recommended to run digital literacy programmes through Panchayats, schools, anganwadis, and self-help groups, which demonstrate practical applications such as e-health and digital payments.

Role of service providers

• TSPs are encouraged to use existing infrastructure and spectrum for hotspot backhaul and to position public Wi-Fi offloading as a tool to ease congestion, defer spectrum investment, and improve quality of service.
• Building on TRAI’s 71st Tariff Amendment Order of 2025, which capped ISP and TSP charges to PDOs at twice the retail Fibre to the Home (FTTH) rate, the paper suggests that the framework may need further refinement and recommends that ISPs promote infrastructure sharing with PDOs and local bodies.

Role of private entities

• The paper recommends expanding venue-owner participation as PDOs across all contexts: kirana stores and CSC operators in rural areas; shops, cafes, and RWAs in urban areas; malls, hospitals, and hotels in high-footfall areas; and stadiums and convention centres in event-based deployment.
• Private entrepreneurs under the BharatNet Udyami (BNU) model who extend BharatNet fibre to homes and institutions are identified as the last-mile delivery arm for public Wi-Fi.
• System integrators are introduced as a new formal category: private entities that provide end-to-end technical coordination across access points, backhaul, authentication, network management, and cybersecurity as a single managed solution, to reduce complexity for small PDOs and help governments translate coverage goals into deployable architectures.

Authentication, payment, roaming, and revenue streams

• The paper proposes replacing the 2009 DoT OTP mandate with Passpoint, a global standard for automatic, secure Wi-Fi authentication that connects users automatically without login and eliminates captive portals entirely.
• A centralised authentication and payment gateway interfacing with UPI is proposed, enabling single-step access and eliminating the need for OTP portals. TRAI frames this as fulfilling its 2016 vision of one-click authentication using Aadhaar and electronic Know Your Customer (eKYC) verification.
• For roaming, the paper proposes adopting OpenRoaming, a framework developed by the Wireless Broadband Alliance (WBA) for seamless inter-provider Wi-Fi handover, and suggests a “super-aggregator” that would act as a single entity to federate roaming across all PM-WANI hotspots, and asks whether regulators should make this mandatory.
• Proposed direct revenue models include: Paid access for premium venues; freemium for transport hubs and campuses; advertisement-supported free access; TSP-bundled Wi-Fi plans; community-led models funded through Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) grants; and revenue-sharing among providers.
• Indirect revenue models proposed include: mobile data offload savings for TSPs; monetisation of anonymised footfall data; viability gap funding for low-revenue areas; cost-sharing for Smart City and Internet of Things (IoT) infrastructure; and e-governance efficiency gains as a justification for public investment.

Also read

• Indian Govt. Delicenses Half of 6 GHz Band for Wi-Fi Despite Opposition From Telecom Operators
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