SUMMARY
The Karnataka government is planning to set up 5,000 free public hotspots
This move is in line with the Digital Karnataka goals of the state government
To roll out the hotspots, the state government is in talks with the private ISPs
Karnataka’s Deputy Chief Minister DK Shivakumar and IT BT minister Priyank Kharge announced on Sunday (August 28) that Bengaluru is likely to get free public Wi-Fi zones by December.
This is in line with the goals of the state government underlined in Digital Karnataka.
According to Kharge, the government is planning to set up about 5,000 free public hotspots across the city, the ET reported. “We will start talking to telecom service as well as broadband service providers,” Kharge told the publication.
In 2019, when it was first formulated, the plan was to offer free data for the first 30 minutes or an hour and charge for use beyond that. This scheme was estimated to cost about INR 100 Cr and was to be fully funded by the internet service provider Atria Convergence Technologies (ACT).
The update follows after the Centre received a proposal from industry bodies in 2019 to set up free public hotspots nationwide. Back then, the government planned to roll out 5 Mn free Wi-Fi zones across the country by 2020 and expand it to 10 Mn by 2022 under the National Digital Communications Policy of 2018.
The Centre has also been working on the BharatNet project, one of the largest rural telecom projects in the world. As of August 7, 2023, 1,96,544 gram panchayats are connected through the BharatNet project and 6,50,080 km of optical fibre cable (OFC) has been laid.
Additionally, 6,01,026 fibre-to-the-home (FTTH) connections have been commissioned and 1,04,674 Wi-Fi hotspots have been installed to ensure last-mile connectivity in rural areas of the country, per the latest statistics.
The central government is also working on rolling out new reforms to regularise the telecom sector. The Indian government drafted the Indian Telecommunication Bill, 2022.
While proposing the draft, the communications ministry also urged the private players to share thoughts and perspectives on the same. With this, the government planned to replace the Indian Telegraph Act, 1885, the Indian Wireless Telegraphy Act, 1933, and the Telegraph Wires (Unlawful Possession) Act, 1950.
According to Nielsen’s India Internet Report 2023, India’s internet users aged two years and above reached over 700 Mn as of December 2022. Further, the study found that the number of users aged 12 years and above grew 20% YoY to 595 Mn in 2022.
