The government is looking to install 2500 Wi-Fi hotspots in 256 locations across India by the next fiscal year. Telecom Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad hopes the initiative will help the administration reach its goal of having 50 crore internet users within the next 6 to 7 months.
According to Prasad, mobile penetration in the country currently stands at 100 crore and data penetration at 40 crore. He claims it took nearly 3 to 4 years for the latter tally to go from 20 to 30 crore but less than a year for it rise to 40 crore henceforth. Keeping this in mind, the minister thinks the 50 crore target is achievable within the time limit set.
As per PTI, Prasad had announced the government’s intentions at the launch of the BSE’s free public Wi-Fi service. The administration chose to join hands with Tata Docomo for the enterprise. He says that state-run BSNL has managed to set up roughly 500 Wi-Fi hotspots in 200 areas under the project so far, which is part of the larger Digital India initiative.
BSNL CMD Anupam Shrivastava had previously spoken about the Wi-Fi program, asserting that the telecom operator plans to install 40000 hotspots across the nation in total. The program has come about in order to make up for its lack of 4G connectivity, as it doesn’t have the necessary spectrum to provide the high-speed service to its subscribers.
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Furthermore, Shrivastava claims BSNL is trying to raise the quality of its network by setting up 25000 cellular towers in the nation. It’s investing Rs 5500 crore into the initiative, which it eventually hopes will result in its profits growing to Rs 1000 crore by the end of the current fiscal.