TRAI seeks to encourage public Wi-Fi networks in India

The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has release a consultation paper on ‘Proliferation of Broadband through Wi-Fi Networks’ in which it seeks to examine the need of encouraging public Wi-Fi networks in the country from a public policy point of view, discuss the issues in its proliferation and find out solutions for the same. In this paper, ‘public Wi-Fi networks’ has broader meaning and is not limited to the Wi-Fi hotspot created by licensed TSP/ ISP at public places. There could be small entrepreneurs or even a very small entity which would like to participate in common and shared Wi-Fi network for larger public use.

According to the Ericsson Mobility Report of June 2016, over 85 per cent of data traffic generated by the use of smart phone video apps goes over Wi-Fi. The study notes that although cellular data usage on smart phones is growing, Wi-Fi data growth is dramatically outpacing it.

The global outreach of Wi-Fi technology is evidenced by the fact that at present more than 450 million households worldwide and over 47 million global public hotspots are estimated to be connected by Wi-Fi. As per data published by iPass and Maravedis Rethink, India had 29,205 Wi-Fi hotspots in 2014 (31,518 in 2016).

Wi-Fi Hotspots in India (2016)

Location            Number of Hotspots
Hotels                     12,856
Retail                         4,435
Cafes                      13,967
Municipalities              150
Airport                            108
Flights                                2
Total                         31,518

(Source: iPass Wi-Fi Growth Map9)

In comparison, top ranking countries like France, United States, and United Kingdom had significantly higher numbers at 13 million, 9.8 million and 5.6 million hotspots, respectively. The situation of Wi-Fi hotspots is not encouraging in India as we represent one-sixth of the world population, whereas our share in Wi-Fi hotspots is less than 1/1000. The study also estimated that the global number of hotspots would grow to over 340 million, nearly one Wi-Fi hotspot for every 20 people on earth by 2018, compared to one Wi-Fi hotspot for every 150 people today.

Globally the increase in number of Wi-Fi hotspots from 2013 to 2016 has been 568 per cent, whereas India has an increase of 12 per cent only. For India to reach a goal of one hotspot for every 150 people, 8 lakh additional hotspots will have to be installed.