BIF Welcomes TRAI's Public Wi-Fi Push, Calls For National Strategy To Expand Affordable Broadband

New Delhi: Policy think-tank Broadband India Forum (BIF) on Wednesday welcomed the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India's approach of formally recognising Public Wi‑Fi as a complementary broadband infrastructure layer essential for affordable, ubiquitous broadband access.

Responding to TRAI’s consultation paper on the proliferation of public Wi‑Fi networks, BIF flagged that overreliance on mobile networks alone may be insufficient to meet India’s future digital ambitions.

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The forum said public wi‑fi can improve affordability, enhance indoor connectivity, increase spectrum efficiency and offload traffic from congested mobile networks.

BIF urged TRAI to recommend a comprehensive national strategy built around infrastructure enablement, ecosystem scale, technology modernisation along with user awareness and adoption.

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It recommended integrating PM‑WANI with BharatNet, state fibre networks, smart cities and public digital assets to accelerate hotspot deployment.

It suggested launching a nationwide awareness campaign to educate consumers, businesses and local entrepreneurs about the affordability, trust & safety and benefits of Public Wi-Fi.

The forum advised strengthening PM-WANI through a combination of few Super PDOAs, scalable PDOA and App Provider ecosystems capable of aggregating fragmented hotspots into trusted, interoperable and investment-worthy digital platforms.

“Public Wi-Fi is one of the most strategic digital public infrastructures with the potential to bridge the digital divide. PM-WANI, which opened India's Public Wi-Fi ecosystem after decades of regulatory restrictions, should be provided a fair and sustained opportunity to achieve scale," said TV Ramachandran, President, Broadband India Forum.

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Ramachandran urged an ecosystem where TSPs (Telecommunication Service Providers) and ISPs (Internet Service Providers) increasingly view Public Wi-Fi not as a competing or isolated connectivity layer, but as a complementary broadband growth opportunity.

Developing open interoperability standards for seamless roaming, authentication and discovery to make Wi‑Fi as frictionless as mobile broadband along with a national roadmap for next‑generation Wi‑Fi were other recommendations.

The national roadmap for next-generation Wi-Fi technologies should include Wi-Fi 6E and Wi-Fi 7, supported through affordable device availability, domestic manufacturing incentives and building-readiness frameworks.

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Public funding, where required, may be targeted towards market-failure situations, underserved geographies and ecosystem development objectives.

BIF also urged stronger participation by municipalities and local bodies as digital infrastructure facilitators rather than merely permission-granting authorities.

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