5-P Model (People-Panchayat-Public-Private Partnership) to take PM-WANI to the hinterland (or Bharat)

Existing service providers are unable to reach or have no incentive to deliver public Wi-Fi in remote areas. A new breed of smaller local entrepreneurs is required

In India, access to data is still limited due to poor coverage of fiber/telecom and unaffordable pricing of cellular data, especially in rural areas.

In this background, Public Wi-Fi hotspots hold a significant place in the last-mile delivery of broadband access to users in a cost-effective manner.

In rural areas, Wi-Fi-based access is more cost-effective, sustainable, and scalable than adding new Long-Term Evolution (LTE) base stations, due to unrecoverable costs. Also, WiFi Hotspots bolster connectivity inside buildings, airports, Railway stations, and other public places and activity centers. where LTE penetration may be limited. It allows for offloading data access from telecom networks to ease congestion and can be crucial when the next billion IoT devices come online. Yet, there are only 3 Lakhs public Wi-Fi hotspots in India, compared to 13 million in France, and 10 million in the United States of America.

The proliferation of broadband across the length and breadth of the country is an essential ingredient of Digital India. Towards this objective, it is envisaged to leverage public Wi-Fi access networks for the delivery of broadband services. This is envisaged and facilitated by the PM-WANI (Prime Minister – Wireless Access Network Interface) framework of Govt. and infrastructure for the broadband access and services being provided under distributed architecture and unbundling of infrastructure to improve performance by new players.

DigiGaon Job Factory Foundation with its value innovation is trying to prove the success of its business model with its two PM-WANI-based Proofs-of-Concept in partnership with RailTel at Chandauli and Saiyadraja railway stations. In Western UP.

The Covid-19 pandemic has necessitated the delivery of stable and high-speed broadband internet (data) services to an increasingly large number of subscribers in the country to enable WFA (Work From Anywhere). These include areas that do not have 4G mobile coverage. PM-WANI framework takes forward the goal of the National Digital Communications Policy, 2018 (NDCP-2018) of creating a robust digital communications infrastructure.

As the existing service providers are unable to reach and have no incentive to deliver public Wi-Fi in remote areas, a new breed of players especially the smaller local entrepreneurs are required to be facilitated to be part of the Public Wi-Fi ecosystem in remote and rural areas.

The detailed architecture showing various players in the PM-WANI framework is depicted below:

*MHSP = = Managed Hotspot Service Provider

India’s appetite for data appears to be insatiable, with the country now having over 800 million broadband connections. However, the growth potential is still very high. Probably over 500 million more to be connected, especially in rural areas.

The main objective of the PM-WANI framework, apart from creating connectivity, and access for all is also job creation. With this policy, the government has outlined the vision of creating 4 million additional jobs in the telecom sector.

And when we look at the kind of potential that the WANI platform and the public data office and data office aggregator concepts alone represent. We can, indeed unleash huge employment potential, if we are able to put in place this architecture and make it available for people across the country.

The PM-WANI will allow small entrepreneurs such as tea shops, to set up and maintain Access Points. Whereas, device manufacturers, payment companies, ISPs/Telcos, and Consumer Internet companies can provide the remaining pieces to set up Public Data Offices (PDOs).

DigiGaon Job Factory - Business Model Innovation

As time and cost are two critical elements for the implementation, the key question is how we can roll out the broadband connectivity to the rural areas in the quickest and most cost-effective manner. The government is keenly looking forward to the speedy implementation of broadband connectivity for the success of its ‘marquee’ Digital India program.

The concept of the “PM-WANI” framework, enables, the creation of public hotspots for use of the local entrepreneurs to enable them to provide much-needed broadband access to rural masses as a business case without any perpetual subsidy.

The solution leveraged by DigiGaon in PM-WANI makes use of an innovative rural access technology based on 5L principles of value innovation namely; Low cost, Low Power, Low Maintenance, Local Control, and Local Content.

Also, for early adoption and deep penetration of Broadband in rural areas, it is necessary to have a technical solution that is easy to be managed and operated by the local communities/entrepreneur and makes use of the existing backbone connectivity of main national/ regional networks of telecom operators (TSPs) / ISPs including PSU Telcos. The local communities/entrepreneur needs to be involved in the whole gamut of operation, maintenance, marketing, sales support, application, etc. to take the overall ownership of the business at the local level.

DigiGaon Job Factory Foundation with its value innovation is trying to prove the success of its business model with its two PM-WANI-based Proofs-of-Concept in partnership with RailTel at Chandauli and Saiyadraja railway stations. In Western UP.

Considering the multi-faceted nature of the problem in ensuring affordable rural access to Broadband infrastructure, devices, and content, partnerships among organizations with a different visions, expertise, capacities, and profit goals appear to be a key to improving access and affordability. Collaborations serving as critical mechanisms for improving rural Broadband access can take the form of partnerships within the public sector, negotiated public-private partnerships (PPP), private agreements among stakeholders in the telecommunications sector, and extending it further to stakeholders at the community and village level with 5Ps (People-Panchayat-Public-Private Partnership) concept.

Thus, the involvement of a local entrepreneur/ local cable operator and community (Gram Panchayat) under People-Panchayat-Public-Private Partnership (5Ps) for the sustainability of Broadband business in the rural areas is being made use of by DigiGaon.

For making delivery of high-speed broadband access in the hands/homes of rural people some very low cost, low power & low maintenance technical solution is needed which can reduce the cost to an affordable level by making use of existing infrastructure and unlicensed spectrum which is free.

Also in many villages of rural India, there is an acute shortage of grid power supply which is also highly unreliable, a low-cost hybrid power solution is required. In addition, there is the unavailability of suitable indoor space for installing the network equipment and keeping it safe and secured.

Due to all the above challenges, there is a perceived lack of a business case for rural broadband access and that is why not many players are venturing into it. DigiGaon is also trying to bring out an innovative concept that can lead to a sustainable business model for hand/home delivery of broadband access to rural masses.

The traditional business case to provide Broadband services does not sustain in rural areas where the population densities are lower and the cost of deploying and managing a Broadband access network exceeds potential revenues. To provide affordable Broadband service in rural areas, it is necessary to carve out a sustainable model that makes the business case viable in the long run, DigiGaon with its Proofs-of-Concept is trying to create one such model.

DigiGaon business innovation calls for innovative partnerships between various stakeholders and balancing between a various judicious mix of technologies & tariff plans which PM-WANI with innovative PDOA business model provides.

The Public Data Office Aggregator (PDOA) regime based on PM-WANI architecture provides a lot of scope for innovation when it comes to the adoption of a business model. Moreover, it uses unlicensed technology in form of Wi-Fi, which again happens to be a win-win considering the rural setup of India. This model is innovative and sustainable and has an advantage over conventional resale-based businesses as it uses a low-cost setup, and makes use of existing infrastructure on a revenue share basis with wide scope for local partnership in terms of 5Ps.

By Dr. Satya N. Gupta, Chairman, Bluetown India, and Evangelist DigiGaon Job Factory

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