News Update

According to the Telecom Secretary, public wifi hotspots have the potential to generate 2-3 crore jobs this year

• ByStartupStory     |    January 24, 2022

According to a senior government official, the creation of one crore public wifi hotspots across India this year, as anticipated under the current telecom strategy, has the potential to create two to three crore job possibilities.

While addressing at the Broadband India Forum (BIF), Telecom Secretary K Rajaraman urged wifi equipment manufacturers to cut their prices in order to expand the Prime Minister’s Wi-Fi Access Network Interface (PM-WANI) scheme, which intends to set up wifi hotspots across the country.

According to Rajaraman, “the creation of 10 million hotspots as per the National Digital Communications Policy (NDCP) target by 2022 could potentially generate 20-30 million job opportunities in the small and medium-scale sectors,” based on a conservative estimate of each hotspot enabling two to three direct and indirect employment opportunities.

“Large manufacturing facilities will be required to manufacture millions of access points for PM-WANI, which is at the heart of the Atmanirbhar Bharat Mission, resulting in greater job creation,” Rajaraman added.

Public wifi hotspots have enormous potential to operate as catalysts for rural economic growth and as a source of rural livelihood, in addition to accelerating socio-economic progress by providing jobs for millions of small local and village enterprises.

BIF and Meta (previously Facebook) announced the creation of the BIF Connectivity Accelerator Program to help entrepreneurs and companies build innovative connectivity solutions and promote the public wifi ecosystem.

“This virtual programme (BIF Connectivity Accelerator) will allow startups to collaborate with BIF to build important use cases and scale their businesses. We call on all stakeholders to come together and work with us to carry out this national mission quickly and effectively “TV Ramachandran, President of the BIF, stated.

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