The government will launch an application to access Wi-Fi public access points

New public Wi-Fi public access points would come through BharatNet, the government's plan to connect 250,000 rural wide gram panchayats. Photo: Mint

New Delhi: The Ministry of Telecommunications (DoT) will launch on Thursday a mobile application allowing a user to integrate with one click, through a single connection and authentication, transparent access to any point of public WiFi access in the country.

The government estimates that the application, which will be launched on the occasion of the Indian Mobile Congress, will offer users cheaper and faster Internet access compared to mobile data, while stimulating the proliferation of public Wi-Fi access points in the country, in accordance with the objectives of the approved national digital communication policy. by the cabinet of the Union last month.

This would also relieve mobile data traffic over Wi-Fi networks, reducing network congestion in high-density areas, potentially reducing call loss. [19659003] "The application has been designed so that users can access public Wi-Fi through single sign-on and do not have to repeat the entire process to access the next access point." Wi-Fi. The design also ensures ultimate interoperability between telecom providers, which means that if I am a mobile customer of a given carrier, I will also be able to seamlessly access Wi-Fi access points. Fi managed by other operators, "said a knowledgeable person,

The government, as part of the national digital communication policy, has targeted the deployment of 5 million Wi-Fi access points public by 2020 and 10 million by 2022 through a national mission on broadband, in addition to the implementation of a "fiber initiative". ;on board". take fiber at home. At present, the country has fewer than 40,000 access points of this type.

Last week, the DoT announced the publication of a gazette in its 5 GHz band, thus removing a major hurdle to creating such access points by improving the existing capacity of the Wi-Fi spectrum. Fi. [19659003] "No license is required in indoor and outdoor environments to create, maintain, work, own or negotiate wireless equipment for low power wireless access systems, including including radio local area networks operating in the 5150-5250 frequency band. MHz; 5250-5350 MHz; 5470-5725 MHz;

These new public Wi-Fi public access points would go through BharatNet, previously called the National Fiber Optic Network, which is the government's plan to connect 250,000 grams of rural broadband panchayats. The government has already completed the laying of optical fiber on 100,000 grams of panchayats during the first phase and aims to complete the second phase by March 2019, by which time it will connect an additional 150,000 panchayats with private sector help.

It is also planned to launch combined offers that allow users to access mobile data and hot spots they manage. They agreed to cooperate on the server so that the public Wi-Fi is launched significantly, "said a second person aware of the changing situation, asking for anonymity.

On May 1, the Telecommunications Commission accepted the information from the Telecommunications Regulatory Authority of India. The recommendations (Trai # 39; s) relating to the creation of public data offices (PDOs) similar to public call offices in order to boost public Wi-Fi access points, which could create employment opportunities by creating a new category of service providers via PDO aggregators. These "pay-as-you-go" AOPs purchase data from telecommunication or Internet service providers and resell packet data packets of the size of a packet.

The framework, suggested by the regulator, prescribed interoperable standards to authenticate the user and the payment mechanism. Unbundling operations so that public Wi-Fi access points can be seamlessly provided in a network situation. An entity that sets up a Wi-Fi access point does not need to be responsible for its marketing, customer acquisition, payments and settlements.

"Public WiFi is advantageous when it is affordable. Easy authentication is a step in the right direction, but the capacity and availability of the public Wi-Fi network is a bigger problem to solve, "said Mahesh Uppal, director of ComFirst India's communications consulting firm.

unanswered up to the time of publication.