Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) is going to take steps to help reduce the cost of broadband services in rural areas of the country. New recommendations have been presented by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India. TRAI suggests that public Wi-Fi service providers, also known as Public Data Offices (PDOs), should reduce their costs.
What is the Public Data Office Service?
PDOs are essentially businesses that buy Internet bandwidth and then sell it to multiple customers. TRAI believes that the cost for these Wi-Fi providers should be made more reasonable. As a result PM-Wani initiative will gain more popularity. Since four years have passed since the initiative started and not much progress has been made there.
When PM-WANI was launched five years ago, it aimed to install 1 crore public Wi-Fi hotspots by 2022. And setting up another 50 million public Wi-Fi hotspots by 2030. However, TRAI noted that one of the main reasons for the slow deployment of these hotspots is the high cost that telecom companies and internet service providers charge from PDOs for internet.
That is why overall, PM-WANI aims to ensure fast and affordable internet to people in rural and underprivileged areas as well as in populated places like train stations, banks and post offices.
