Parliament Question: Deployment of PM-WANI hotspots

GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF COMMUNICATIONS DEPARTMENT OF TELECOMMUNICATIONS RAJYA SABHA STARRED QUESTION NO. 418 TO BE ANSWERED ON 02ND APRIL, 2026 DEPLOYMENT OF PM-WANI HOTSPOTS 418 # SHRI MITHLESH KUMAR: Will the Minister of Communications be pleased to state: (a) the number of registered Public Data Offices (PDOs), Public Data Office Aggregators (PDOAs), and App providers since the launch of the PM-WANI scheme, State/Union Territory-wise; (b) the number of Public Wi-Fi hotspots made operational under the scheme so far, State wise; (c) the number of internet users utilizing PM-WANI hotspots; (d) the details of data consumed through these hotspots since its launch; and (e) the steps taken by the Ministry to increase the deployment of PM-WANI hotspots in rural and remote areas of the country? ANSWER MINISTER OF COMMUNICATIONS AND DEVELOPMENT OF NORTH EASTERN REGION (SHRI JYOTIRADITYA M. SCINDIA) (a) to (e) A statement is laid on the Table of the House. 1STATEMENT REFERRED TO IN REPLY TO PARTS (A) TO (E) OF RAJYA SABHA STARRED QUESTION NO. 418 ANSWERED ON 02.04.2026 ASKED BY SHRI MITHLESH KUMAR, HON’BLE MEMBER OF PARLIAMENT REGARDING ‘DEPLOYMENT OF PM-WANI HOTSPOTS’. (a) & (b): The number of Public Data Offices (PDOs) / public wi-fi hotspots, Public Data Office Aggregators (PDOAs) and app providers registered under the Prime Minister Wi-Fi Access Network Interface (PM-WANI) scheme, as on 28.2.2026, are as under: Number of Number Number of S. PDOs / States / Union Territories of app no. public wi-fi PDOAs providers hotspots 1 Andaman and Nicobar Islands 275 5 2 Andhra Pradesh 6,076 21 3 Arunachal Pradesh 1,017 4 4 Assam 2,612 15 5 Bihar 4,086 40 6 Chandigarh 253 6 7 Chhattisgarh 2,839 20 8 Dadra and Nagar Haveli and 0 0 Daman and Diu 9 Delhi 2,08,946 47 10 Goa 430 7 11 Gujarat 11,857 25 12 Haryana 18,474 32 13 Himachal Pradesh 936 12 113** 14 Jammu and Kashmir 2,299 10 15 Jharkhand 1,042 23 16 Karnataka 21,842 44 17 Kerala 5,002 16 18 Ladakh 601 1 19 Lakshadweep 1 1 20 Madhya Pradesh 7,597 34 21 Maharashtra 34,240 52 22 Manipur 21 8 23 Meghalaya 256 4 24 Mizoram 3 2 25 Nagaland 78 7 26 Odisha 3,037 30 27 Puducherry 89 5 228 Punjab 3,713 26 29 Rajasthan 2,890 32 30 Sikkim 13 2 31 Tamil Nadu 7,504 31 32 Telangana 4,288 21 33 Tripura 310 8 34 Uttar Pradesh 51,590 55 35 Uttarakhand 980 22 36 West Bengal 4,206 47 Total 4,09,403 207* *This is the number of unique PDOAs registered under the PM-WANI scheme across the country. Some PDOAs operate in more than one State / Union territory. **App providers are registered at the national level. (c): The total number of internet users who have accessed PM-WANI hotspots, till 28.2.2026, is 2,44,67,896. (d): Approximately 58.64 peta bytes of data has been consumed through PM-WANI hotspots since launch of the scheme. (e): With a view to increase the number of PM-WANI hotspots across the country, including in rural and remote areas, the following policy interventions under the scheme have been issued by the Department of Telecommunications on 16.9.2024: (i). To enable reduction in cost and enhance viability of PDOs, they have been allowed to:— (1) offer PM-WANI through a regular fibre-to-the-home (FTTH) connection; and (2) aggregate their multiple access points to a single backhaul towards the Internet Service Provider (ii). To enable generation of revenue and enhance viability:— (1). PDOs have been allowed to offer mobile data offload service to telecom service providers; and (2). PDOAs and app providers have been allowed to send content and promotional, and branding messages to potential PM-WANI wi-fi users, with user consent. (iii). To enhance user access and experience:— (1) existing home and business users have been allowed to connect their wi-fi access points to the larger PM-WANI network to enable generation of revenue and enhance viability. (2). PDOAs have been allowed roaming among themselves to enable users to switch smoothly among PM-WANI wi-fi hotspots of different PDOAs. Further, to reduce cost and enhance viability, on 16.6.2025, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India has issued a tariff order on retail broadband connectivity for PDOs, mandating that Internet Service Providers offer all retail FTTH broadband plans with maximum speed up to 200 mega bits per second to PDOs at tariffs not more than twice the corresponding consumer broadband tariff. *** 3