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…
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