7.5 lakh rural Wi-Fi spots to be set up by government | Fusion - WeRIndia

The Internet is a rapidly-growing force around the world, and it has a significant presence in India as well.

A report in December of 2016 showed that the country had over 432 million internet users in total.

However, most of these internet users are urban dwellers, the upper class of society. Millions more in the rural parts of India are still living lifestyles that are, by today’s standards, comparatively primitive.

However, the government of India has decided to take measures to bridge the gap between the upper and lower portions of society and provide these impoverished parts of the country with benefits that they so rarely receive.

The government has planned to make Wi-Fi available nationwide by setting up about 7.5 lakh internet hotspots by the end of 2018. They will provide high-speed internet in these areas by teaming up with private operators such as Reliance Jio, Idea Cellular, and Vodafone.

Aruna Sundararajan, the Telecom Secretary, said that the idea behind this internet provision is to enable e-governance and digital-development initiatives.

This can be accomplished through the provision of this high-speed, affordable, and readily available internet service. This infrastructure will also increase the number of internet users in India.

Statistics from 2016 showed that, compared to other countries, India has only shown minimal Wi-Fi growth, with only about 31,000 hotspots.

In contrast, France, the United States, and the United Kingdom have 1.3 crore, 98 lakh, and 56 lakh hotspots respectively.

Aruna further stated that the network will first be laid across gram panchayats (or GPs) first, with the government providing at least three Wi-Fi hotspots per GP.

With these hotspots being provided all across the country, health, education, and rural development may soon be able to be delivered digitally.

Thus, thanks to this wide provision of internet service, India may soon become a much more digitally-advanced society.

Image credit: Photo by Leon Seibert on Unsplash (Free for commercial use)

Image Reference: https://unsplash.com/photos/2m71l9fA6mg