It’s Now Easier Than Ever To Access Public WiFi Hotspots As Government Announces Detection App For Mobiles

The Department of Telecommunications (DoT) is all set to launch an app that will provide seamless and hassle-free access to public hotspots, on Thursday (25 October), as reported by Mint. The app will provide single-step on boarding through one-time login and authentication.

The app which is scheduled to be launched at the India Mobile Congress will offer not only a safer but also a cost-friendly option to millions of Indians to get online. This positive development is in line with Modi government’s strong push to promote digital literacy and greater accessibility.

Another added benefit could be the decongestion of mobile data traffic. With public wifi hotspots carrying some of the load, efficiency and service delivery of mobile networks is expected to improve. “The design also ensures back-end interoperability between telecom service providers, which means that if I am a mobile customer of a particular operator, I could seamlessly access Wi-Fi hotspots run by other operators as well,” as quoted in Mint.

As part of its ambitious drive to onboard millions of Indians to the internet, the NDA government has fast-tracked the National Optical Fibre Network (NOFN), popularly known as BharatNet. it aims to connect all the 2,50,000 Gram panchayats in the country and provide 100 Mbps connectivity to all gram panchayats (GPs).

World Bank has noted that a 10 per cent increase in the number of internet users in a country can increase a country’s GDP by 1.4%. To put that into perspective, India’s total defence spending is around 1.6%.