The public Wi-Fi segment, which has had a poor track record in service availability and uptake in the country so far, is likely to see increased activity in the coming months with the industry and government departments showing interest in promoting public Wi-Fi projects. The increasing use of mobile data services has also played an instrumental role in drawing attention to public Wi-Fi services in the country.

A report by Nokia Solutions and Networks indicates that 3G services in India grew by 146 per cent year on year during 2013, surpassing the global average mobile broadband data growth, which is doubling every year. Surging data usage has resulted in network congestion. In this scenario, Wi-Fi is emerging as a good option to offload data in crowded areas as well as on the go. The early adopters of Wi-Fi services have been coffee shops, restaurants, hotels, airports, railway stations and shopping malls. The successful deployment of initial projects has led to an increasing roll-out of public Wi-Fi services across both the private and public sectors.

While the growing demand for data offers huge potential for public Wi-Fi services in the country, consumer response and adoption of these services will be a key determinant in ensuring the success of these projects. Public Wi-Fi services allow consumers to switch to a wireless local area network when on the premises and have received an enthusiastic response globally. Most of these systems in developed telecom markets worldwide offer high data speeds for free or at an affordable price. India, on the other hand, has only recently stepped up its efforts in this regard and free-of-cost service is available at a few hotspots with limitations on session length or data usage. Further, poor quality of service and security considerations have also been a key deterrent in the mass uptake of these services.

Wi-Fi on the move

The in-transit Wi-Fi mode of connectivity is still not prevalent in India as public Wi-Fi networks have so far been rolled out only at airports, railway stations, shopping malls and commercial centres, cafes and hotels. In this scenario, the Indian Railways’ (IR) initiative to launch Wi-Fi facility on trains can prove to be a real game changer. At present, the service has been launched on a pilot basis for passengers on the Howrah Rajdhani Express. The cost of installing this service on all three rakes of the Howrah Rajdhani Express has been estimated at Rs 63 million. Based on customer feedback, IR plans to expand this service to all Rajdhani, Shatabdi and Duronto express trains.

Other areas that hold significant potential for public Wi-Fi services are bus and air travel. While most airports in the country are already Wi-Fi enabled, users are now keen to experience in-flight data connectivity. This is a common practice internationally and several carriers such as Aeroflot, Air Canada, British Airways, EgyptAir, Emirates, Etihad, Finnair, Hong Kong Airlines, Japan Airlines, Lufthansa, Oman Air, Qatar Airways, Saudia Airlines, Singapore Airlines, Air Canada, Airtran, Alaska Airlines, American Airlines, Delta, United and Virgin America are either offering this service or are in the process of launching it.

Recently, state-owned Air India has expressed interest in launching on-board Wi-Fi services and is likely to approach the Ministry of Home Affairs and the Ministry of Communications and IT in this regard. Currently, the Indian government does not allow service providers to offer Wi-Fi and/or mobile connectivity on flights. In fact, foreign airlines that are equipped with Wi-Fi and/or mobile connectivity have to switch off their systems while flying over Indian territory. Air India has reportedly approached France-based electronics and technology company Thales to help set up Wi-Fi services on its domestic and international flights. Speed and cost of access would, however, be a key consideration in determining service adoption.

Meanwhile, several state transport departments and private bus operators have either introduced or are exploring the option of launching Wi-Fi services. For instance, the Bangalore Metropolitan Transport Corporation has been offering Wi-Fi facilities on its intra-city Vayu Vajra buses for over two years. The Karnataka State Road Transport Corporation has also been offering Wi-Fi internet service on its Airaavat buses. The Maharashtra State Road Transport Corporation is planning to launch free Wi-Fi service for passengers through a satellite link in 100 Shivneri AC Volvo buses between Mumbai and Pune.

In yet another instance, Wipro has reportedly signed a deal with Sistema Shyam TeleServices Limited to implement a Wi-Fi-based data connectivity solution on select company buses in Bengaluru. The move is aimed at improving staff productivity and utilising commute time.

Government initiatives and plans

The state governments are realising the consumer need for high speed all-time connectivity and have launched public Wi-Fi pilot projects that offer free services to users. In February 2014, a 20 km free Wi-Fi zone was launched between the National Institute of Technology, Patna (located at Ashok Rajpath), and Danapur town. The Bihar government is endorsing the project as the world’s longest free Wi-Fi zone. During the same month, the Gujarat government set up Wi-Fi hotspots in eight localities of Ahmedabad as part of its e-Nagar project. These are Kankariya Lake, B.J. Medical, Madhupur Market, Drive-In, Iskon, Civil Hospital, Science City and Iskon Gathiya. Reliance Jio Infocomm Limited (RJIL) will facilitate the Wi-Fi services at these hotspots. The project will be extended to 53 towns in Gujarat over time.

In January 2014, Bengaluru’s state IT department partnered with D-VoiS Broadband Limited to launch free Wi-Fi hotspots, called Namma WiFi, on M.G. Road, Brigade Road, and Traffic and Transmit Management Centres at Shanthinagar, Yeshwanthpur, Koramangala and C.M.H Road in Indiranagar. The facility is expected to be extended to 10 other hotspots across the city in 2014.

However, most of these projects are currently in the pilot phase and their commercial success is uncertain. These public Wi-Fi launches could be politically motivated given that the country is in election mode. It would be interesting to see whether these projects progress beyond the pilot phase. Meanwhile, the government is also planning to take the Wi-Fi model and its associated benefits to the country’s hinterland. In November 2013, the Telecom Commission gave in-principle approval to set up high speed Wi-Fi hotspots across 250,000 gram panchayats. The project, termed as the government user network (GUN), will be undertaken as part of the ongoing National Optical Fibre Network (NOFN) project.  Under the GUN project, one Wi-Fi hotspot and three connections of optic fibre will be provided in every gram panchayat. The project, entailing a capex of Rs 37.5 billion and opex of Rs 18.6 billion, will be implemented in three phases like the NOFN and the last phase is likely to be completed by March 2016.

Data offloading strategy

In the wake of the growing uptake of 3G technology, establishing Wi-Fi hotspots will be crucial to better manage network congestion in public areas. To this end, several operators have firmed up their Wi-Fi roll-out strategy in the past one year and have either launched or are in the process of launching these services. Some examples are listed below:

•In March 2013, Idea Cellular soft-launched its Wi-Fi service in five cities – Ahmedabad, Kochi, Pune, Hyderabad and Vizag.

•Tata Teleservices Limited has rolled out over 1,000 Wi-Fi hotspots across the country since April 2013. Recently, it has  announced its plans to add 3,000-4,000 Wi-Fi hotspots across nine cities by 2015 and will target hotels, retail cafes, airports, stadiums, shopping malls and government complexes. The operator has already established major hotspots at the domestic and international airports, and the Firoz Shah Kotla stadium in Delhi.

•Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Limited has tied up with Mumbai airport’s new T2 terminal to provide Wi-Fi services. Further, it plans to launch Wi-Fi hotspots with speeds of 8 Mbps for its customers in the Mumbai and Delhi circles. These services will be offered to the operator’s customers at indoor locations such as shopping malls, food courts and coffee shops in the two cities.

•RJIL is planning to launch large-scale Wi-Fi networks in Mumbai and Delhi and has reportedly signed a contract with Ericsson to set up around 30,000 Wi-Fi hotspots across commercial buildings, offices and shopping malls in these circles.

•Vodafone India has also introduced a Wi-Fi zone for its customers at the Belvedere Rapid Metro Station in Gurgaon as a part of its branding exercise. The company is now conducting a pilot to establish Wi-Fi hotspots in several metros for its subscribers. This project is part of the company’s initiative, “Project Spring”, which aims to improve Vodafone’s data coverage and capacity in emerging markets like India.

•Videocon Telecom partnered with Huawei to launch Wi-Fi hotspots in the Punjab circle.  Tikona has also launched a Wi-Fi network at the Maharana Pratap Inter-State Bus Terminus in partnership with the Delhi Transport Corporation.

Challenges and the way forward

While user experience of public Wi-Fi services has been highly varied, there are some common issues such as cumbersome authentication procedures, high costs to access the networks, difficulty in searching available networks and security concerns.

Further, public Wi-Fi services are not typically free of cost and often come with riders pertaining to data usage and session timings. For instance, Namma Wi-Fi usage is limited to three hours a day or up to 50 MB data only. However, the key issues are unreliability and slow speeds of the Wi-Fi connections.

Public Wi-Fi systems have a promising future in a country where data usage is growing at an exponential rate, in spite of all the challenges. The National Telecom Policy, 2012 recognises telecom service, including broadband connectivity, as a basic necessity like education and health services and aims to work towards the “Right to Broadband”. Provision of internet services through the public Wi-Fi system will help the government in achieving its policy objectives and will go a long way in providing a seamless experience to users.