write interesting facts about PCO booths.
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Remember the days when we had public call office (PCO) booths on almost every street in our cities? They helped create jobs and entrepreneurs, besides providing an easy way to make calls. While PCO booths have become redundant with a mobile penetration of 1 billion subscribers (as per the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India’s numbers, as of January 2016), perhaps it is time to replicate the PCO model with Wi-Fi booths.
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Home >Opinion >Online-views >Public WI-FI hotspots can be new PCO booths
Public WI-FI hotspots can be new PCO booths
Internet access is still not available to more than 80% of the country—according to a recent World Bank report, more than a billion Indians are still offline—in an easy and affordable manner. Photo: Indranil Bhoumik/Mint<br />
Internet access is still not available to more than 80% of the country—according to a recent World Bank report, more than a billion Indians are still offline—in an easy and affordable manner. Photo: Indranil Bhoumik/Mint
4 min read . 10 Aug 2016
Osama Manzar
Last-mile Internet connectivity still remains a problem in India, and public Wi-Fi can help
Remember the days when we had public call office (PCO) booths on almost every street in our cities? They helped create jobs and entrepreneurs, besides providing an easy way to make calls. While PCO booths have become redundant with a mobile penetration of 1 billion subscribers (as per the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India’s numbers, as of January 2016), perhaps it is time to replicate the PCO model with Wi-Fi booths.
Internet access is still not available to more than 80% of the country—according to a recent World Bank report, more than a billion Indians are still offline—in an easy and affordable manner. The Wi-Fi booths could work as Internet access points, just as PCOs did for telephones, and can be made sustainable through a paid model.
Additionally, a public Wi-Fi system will enable last-mile connectivity by extending access to people to go online and access information. Public Wi-Fi can democratize digital access if communities, individuals and micro enterprises set up Wi-Fi hot spots at various locations for use by the massesDespite the problem of last-mile connectivity and an Internet penetration of only 34.8% (according to Internet Live Stats), India has not yet tried the public Wi-Fi system at any significant level. As per data published by iPass and Maravedis Rethink, a global Wi-Fi service and a wireless market research and analysis firm, respectively, India has only 31,518 Wi-Fi hotspots despite a population of over 1.2 billion people. Of these, almost 13,000 are at hotels.
On the other hand, countries such as France (which has a population of 64 million) and UK (which has a population of 66 million) have a significantly higher number of Wi-Fi hot spots at 13 million and 5.6 million, respectively. According to a Telecom Regulatory Authority of India consultation paper released last month, though India represents one-sixth of the world population, our share of Wi-Fi hotspots is less than 1/1,000. This is a disappointing figure.
If you think about it, a robust public Wi-Fi system will address the need gap in India perfectly. We could start by converting our 240,000 gram panchayats into public Wi-Fi hot spots. Technically, all gram panchayats are supposed to have an Internet connection under the National Optic Fibre Network, but many await connectivity and many among the ‘connected’ do not work. Further, we could make the 150,000 post offices in India public Wi-Fi hot spots, too. And also look at enabling 600 district libraries to provide public Wi-Fi access.