Can public WiFi expansion in India survive the era of cheap mobile data?

Despite PM-WANI's push, India's public WiFi expansion faces weak business models and poor infrastructure, raising questions over its long-term digital relevance

India’s public WiFi push was once seen as a critical pillar of Digital India -- a low-cost way to expand broadband access, reduce mobile congestion and bring millions online. But years after flagship programmes like PM-WANI were launched, public WiFi expansion remains far slower than expected, raising a larger policy question: in an era of cheap mobile data and expanding 5G, is large-scale public WiFi deployment still worth pursuing? 

The answer is becoming increasingly complex. Public WiFi still offers significant economic and social value, particularly for digital inclusion and high-capacity connectivity. Yet weak business viability, infrastructure bottlenecks, security concerns and policy execution challenges have limited its growth.

 

Why public WiFi still matters

Public WiFi remains significantly cheaper than mobile broadband for large-scale data consumption. According to a recent consultation paper by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai), mobile data in India costs around ₹8 per GB, while fixed WiFi costs are roughly ₹0.27 per GB. PM-WANI tariffs range between ₹0.99 and ₹6 per GB. 

This makes public WiFi particularly relevant for low-income users, students, small businesses and underserved communities, while also helping reduce pressure on mobile networks in dense locations such as railway stations, airports and hospitals. 

Sudhir Kunder, chief business officer at internet exchange operator DE-CIX India, told Business Standard that while 4G/5G offers personal access, public WiFi enables low-cost bandwidth distribution and shared digital inclusion where mobile economics alone become inefficient. 

He said the next phase of viability will come from integrating hotspots with stronger fibre backhaul, local interconnection and application-rich ecosystems, turning WiFi from a standalone hotspot into an "intelligent extension of broadband infrastructure". 

Shashank Agarwal, managing director at Salasar Techno Engineering, said that public WiFi remains a necessary complement despite cheap mobile data. "As data consumption per user continues to rise, the pressure on cellular networks will intensify, and WiFi offloading will become an operational necessity for telecom operators, not a policy aspiration," he told Business Standard.

India’s ambitions versus reality

India’s PM-WANI framework, launched in December 2020, was designed to democratise public internet access through Public Data Offices (PDOs), aggregators and app providers. 

As of February 28, 2026, over 409,000 PDOs are operational, with 24.4 million users having consumed around 58.64 petabytes of data. But these numbers fall sharply short of India’s broader ambitions. The National Digital Communications Policy 2018 had targeted 10 million hotspots by 2022, while Bharat 6G Vision aims for 50 million by 2030. 

The consultation paper points to major bottlenecks: limited monetisation, weak backhaul infrastructure, fragmented implementation and cybersecurity concerns. 

Kunder said the main problem is not deployment intent, but weak commercial design. “Most PM-WANI rollouts still operate as fragmented access points without robust backhaul economics, traffic aggregation, or seamless user continuity,” he said. 

Agarwal said slow adoption is being driven by high backhaul costs, cumbersome authentication, fragmented networks and low awareness. 

Telecom consultant Mahesh Uppal told Business Standard that PM-WANI is not aligned with the incentives of India's telecom operators.

The mobile data paradox

India’s ultra-cheap mobile data market has created both opportunity and structural challenges for public WiFi. While low-cost 4G and 5G have accelerated internet penetration, they also reduce the urgency for consumers to seek out public WiFi unless it offers clear advantages in reliability, speed or venue-specific use. 

This has made public WiFi’s business model harder to sustain through simple data resale alone. 

Agarwal said the model must evolve beyond transactional retail. "Public WiFi must be seen not as a pipeline but as a point of economic engagement, and it is that broader value creation that makes the model sustainable at scale," he said, pointing to opportunities in digital commerce, advertising, payments and public service delivery.

Global examples show stronger models

Countries like South Korea and the European Union have treated public WiFi as essential infrastructure, integrating it with fibre backhaul, municipal coordination and public-private partnerships. 

South Korea has over 94,000 public WiFi locations, while the EU’s WiFi4EU initiative has deployed more than 93,000 hotspots through local government-led implementation. 

These examples suggest that India’s challenge is less about technological feasibility and more about execution and ecosystem design.

The likely future: targeted, not universal

Experts believe India should prioritise strategic deployment over blanket expansion. 

"From a security standpoint, India should prioritise targeted deployments over universal blanket coverage to maintain a zero-trust architecture," Neehar Pathare, managing director and chief executive officer at 63SATS Cybertech, told Business Standard. 

Kunder said that India should prioritise "strategic densification", and not "indiscriminate proliferation". He said public WiFi offers the strongest returns in railways, campuses, markets, healthcare centres and underserved rural areas where broadband scarcity or bandwidth pressure is highest. 

Agarwal added that India needs both a universal vision and a pragmatic deployment strategy, with deployment focused first on high-density and underserved regions.

Why this Public WiFi debate matters

Public WiFi still holds strategic relevance for India’s digital future, particularly in expanding affordable broadband access and supporting high-capacity public infrastructure. 

But success will depend less on technology and more on solving deeper structural issues: viable business models, stronger fibre backhaul, better interoperability, security trust and market-aligned regulation. 

India’s public WiFi expansion is still worth pursuing -- but only if it evolves from an ambitious access programme into a targeted, sustainable digital infrastructure strategy.