We are creating some awesome events for you. Kindly bear with us.

Indian telecom regulator invites participation in public Wi-Fi pilot to provide affordable and widespread access to data

Indian telecom regulator invites participation in public Wi-Fi pilot to provide affordable and widespread access to data

The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has issued an invitation to entities to be part of a pilot to establish Nation-wide pay-as-you-go Public Data Offices (PDOs), which would provide Wi-Fi hotspots, retailing data packages to the public at low prices. Data costs on mobile Internet plans are still too high for many Indians, who ration their cellular data usage.

The project document from TRAI notes that  there are only 31,000 public Wi-Fi hotspots in India, compared to 13 million in France, and 10 million in the United States of America. Installing more routers  would not be enough. To offer a seamless, simplified, consistent experience to end users, both residents and international travelers, across hotspots from various providers, TRAI wants to unubndle authentication, payment and accounting from hardware and software running on the Access Point.

This will allow small entrepreneurs such as tea shops, to set up and maintain Access Points, while  device manufacturers, payment companies, ISPs/Telcos and Consumer Internet companies can provide the remaining pieces to set up PDOs.

What are PDOs and PDOAs

Previously, in its ‘Recommendations on Proliferation of Broadband Through Public Wi-Fi Networks’ published in March 2017, TRAI described PDOs as a model similar to the Public Calling Offices or PCOs, which are basically prepaid or postpaid public payphones which brought long-distance calling to the masses in India and cyber cafes, which provided widespread Internet access.

In order to replicate this model for public Wi-Fi, and also address the problem of over-regulation faced by cyber cafes, TRAI is considering a model wherein a Pubic Data Office Aggregator (PDOA) can provide last mile Wi-Fi services and small entrepreneurs would set up Public Data Offices (PDOs). PDOs will provide the venue for the public Wi-Fi deployment.

PDOAs may mulithome (connecting a host or a computer network to more than one network) bandwidth from multiple Internet Service Providers (ISPs) and sell them to customers at a retail level. ISPs may charge differential “commercial’ tariffs from PDOAs. Similar to the cyber cafe model, PDOAs (but not PDOs) may be mandated to be registered with a relevant registration agency (as prescribed by the DoT) and the registration requirements could have built-in obligations to ensure that e-KYC, authentication and record-keeping requirements are fulfilled to take care of security requirements.

The PDOAs would be required to maintain a list, with details as may be specified by the Department of Telecommunications (DoT), of all the PDOs being serviced by the PDOAs registered with it. The PDOs may not own or deploy any infrastructure and may not have the means or resources to actually implement a seamless interoperable system on their own.

Directly permitting small entrepreneurs to provide data would entail resale of data which is currently not permitted. Introduction of PDOs along with an aggregator (PDOA) would entail resale of data services, as is already allowed in case of cyber cafe model.

This proposed model was derived from consultations initiated in July last year. It is expected to achieve proliferation of Wi-Fi systems across the country, while solving concerns of authentication, payments and authorisation for public Wi-Fi access.

Vision of current initiative and objectives of the pilot

The vision of the current initiative is to establish an Open Architecture based Wi-Fi Access Network Interface (WANI), such that the following are accomplished:

  1. Any entity (company, proprietorship, societies, non-profits, etc.) should easily be able to setup a paid public Wi-Fi Access Point.
  2. Users should be able to easily discover WANI compliant SSIDs (Service Set IDentifiers, which are the name assigned to a Wi-Fi network. All devices in the network must use this case-sensitive name to communicate over Wi-Fi, which is a text string up to 32 bytes long), do one click authentication and payment, and connect one or more devices in single session.
  3. The experience for a small entrepreneur to purchase, self-register, set-up and operate a PDO must be simple, low-touch and maintenance-free.
  4. The products available for consumption should begin from “sachet-sized”, i.e. low denominations ranging from INR 2 to INR 20, etc.
  5. Providers (PDO provider, Access Point hardware/software, user authentication and KYC provider, and payment provider) are unbundled to eliminate silos and closed systems. This allows multiple parties in the ecosystem to come together and enable large scale adoption.

For the pilot, short-term objectives  have been set. The pilot intends to demonstrate that unbundling of services reduces rework and speeds up development and prove that multi-provider, inter-operable, collaborative model increases the overall innovation in the system, dismantles monopolies and encourages passing of benefits to end user.

It will also test the specifications in real life conditions, and suggest improvements. A business model will be jointly developed that fairly allocates value to each provider. Integrated payment methods will also be tested, such as coupons (purchased using cash by user or gifted to user), credit/debit cards, net banking, e-wallets, and the Unified Payments Interface (a system that powers multiple bank accounts into a single mobile application of any participating bank, merging several banking features, seamless fund routing & merchant payment).

Entities invited for participation

Any Indian entity having a PAN number (Permanent Account Number is a code that acts as an identification for Indian entities who pay Income Tax)  wanting to provide one (PDO) or more (PDO Aggregator) hotspots to public using either free or paid model can be a hotspot provider.

Consumer internet app providers can create Internet applications to manage user’s KYC (mobile or Aadhaar, the unique national ID) backed profile, allow all digital payment methods, and allow users to easily connect to hotspots.

Software or service providers who are providing necessary software, hardware, services, and/or support to Hotspot Providers, will also be a part of the pilot.

The last date for application is 25th July. Details of the project are available here.

Featured imageMpandeCC BY-SA 3.0

PARTNER

Qlik’s vision is a data-literate world, where everyone can use data and analytics to improve decision-making and solve their most challenging problems. A private company, Qlik offers real-time data integration and analytics solutions, powered by Qlik Cloud, to close the gaps between data, insights and action. By transforming data into Active Intelligence, businesses can drive better decisions, improve revenue and profitability, and optimize customer relationships. Qlik serves more than 38,000 active customers in over 100 countries.

PARTNER

CTC Global Singapore, a premier end-to-end IT solutions provider, is a fully owned subsidiary of ITOCHU Techno-Solutions Corporation (CTC) and ITOCHU Corporation.

Since 1972, CTC has established itself as one of the country’s top IT solutions providers. With 50 years of experience, headed by an experienced management team and staffed by over 200 qualified IT professionals, we support organizations with integrated IT solutions expertise in Autonomous IT, Cyber Security, Digital Transformation, Enterprise Cloud Infrastructure, Workplace Modernization and Professional Services.

Well-known for our strengths in system integration and consultation, CTC Global proves to be the preferred IT outsourcing destination for organizations all over Singapore today.

PARTNER

Planview has one mission: to build the future of connected work. Our solutions enable organizations to connect the business from ideas to impact, empowering companies to accelerate the achievement of what matters most. Planview’s full spectrum of Portfolio Management and Work Management solutions creates an organizational focus on the strategic outcomes that matter and empowers teams to deliver their best work, no matter how they work. The comprehensive Planview platform and enterprise success model enables customers to deliver innovative, competitive products, services, and customer experiences. Headquartered in Austin, Texas, with locations around the world, Planview has more than 1,300 employees supporting 4,500 customers and 2.6 million users worldwide. For more information, visit www.planview.com.

SUPPORTING ORGANISATION

SIRIM is a premier industrial research and technology organisation in Malaysia, wholly-owned by the Minister​ of Finance Incorporated. With over forty years of experience and expertise, SIRIM is mandated as the machinery for research and technology development, and the national champion of quality. SIRIM has always played a major role in the development of the country’s private sector. By tapping into our expertise and knowledge base, we focus on developing new technologies and improvements in the manufacturing, technology and services sectors. We nurture Small Medium Enterprises (SME) growth with solutions for technology penetration and upgrading, making it an ideal technology partner for SMEs.

PARTNER

HashiCorp provides infrastructure automation software for multi-cloud environments, enabling enterprises to unlock a common cloud operating model to provision, secure, connect, and run any application on any infrastructure. HashiCorp tools allow organizations to deliver applications faster by helping enterprises transition from manual processes and ITIL practices to self-service automation and DevOps practices. 

PARTNER

IBM is a leading global hybrid cloud and AI, and business services provider. We help clients in more than 175 countries capitalize on insights from their data, streamline business processes, reduce costs and gain the competitive edge in their industries. Nearly 3,000 government and corporate entities in critical infrastructure areas such as financial services, telecommunications and healthcare rely on IBM’s hybrid cloud platform and Red Hat OpenShift to affect their digital transformations quickly, efficiently and securely. IBM’s breakthrough innovations in AI, quantum computing, industry-specific cloud solutions and business services deliver open and flexible options to our clients. All of this is backed by IBM’s legendary commitment to trust, transparency, responsibility, inclusivity and service.

Send this to a friend