Indian Telecom Industry to Roll Out One Million WiFi Hotspots
Manoj Sinha releasing the publication, at the inauguration of the India Mobile Congress – 2018, in New Delhi on October 25, 2018. The Secretary, (Telecom), Ms. Aruna Sundararajan and other dignitaries are also seen.
Manoj Sinha, a communications minister in India, said Thursday that the Indian telecom industry will roll out one million WiFi hotspots in the country by December 2019.
He was attending the India Mobile Congress (IMC) event (October 25 – 27) in New Delhi. According to a government statement, the IMC inauguration ceremony was attended by over 5,000 people from 10 partner countries, and included policy makers, ambassadors, opinion makers, change agents, bureaucrats, and investors.
The minister said the deployment of WiFi hotspots will be another step towards digital empowerment of the nation.
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Bharat Wi-Fi, a country-wide common inter-operable platform of one million WiFi hotspots, owned and operated by Telecom Service Providers, Internet Service Providers, and Virtual Network Operators will be rolled out across the country. This initiative will allow consumers to access WiFi hotspots of any of the partnering operators.
In a major policy initiative, which will give impetus to small and medium entrepreneurship (SME) in telecom sector, the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) has decided to deduct payments for resources taken by Virtual Network Operators (VNOs) from telecom service providers, thereby reducing levies payable by VNOs. This avoids double taxation at various stages.
A concrete plan is being made by the DoT to enable homegrown technologies for trials in the field on a large scale to enable the development and the scaling up of the products and services.
Photo courtesy: Press Information Bureau
