PM-WANI scheme: Ration shops in 10 Uttar Pradesh districts to soon provide Wi-Fi service

LUCKNOW: Years after the era of PCO (public call office) booths, the state government is set to introduce PDO (public data office) booths at all authorized ration shops to connect people with high-speed Wi-Fi service under PM-WANI (Prime Minister’s Wi-Fi Access Network Interface).
The PDO booths will be useful in congested and densely populated areas for stable and high-speed internet services through public Wi-Fi.
According to officials, the service will be introduced as a pilot project in 10 districts –- Lucknow, Kanpur, Meerut, Muzaffarnagar, Ghaziabad, Gautam Budh Nagar, Agra, Gorakhpur, Varanasi and Ayodhya.
“Since telecom companies are reluctant to provide wireless computer network in rural and remote areas as they have to pay hefty licence fee for bandwidth, it was proposed that Wi-Fi devices should be provided to government authorized ration shops or to individuals who are interested in running such a service. One must spend Rs 20,000 for the entire set up to start the service,” said district supply officer, Lucknow, Sunil Kumar Singh.
“In Lucknow, there are 1,243 government authorized ration shops, including 605 in rural and 638 in urban areas, through which we currently run the public distribution system (PDS) and other government schemes. For public Wi-Fi service, ‘kotedar’ (ration shop owner) can apply for modem through us or by logging on to website. Once approved, he/she can earn extra money by providing Wi-Fi service to local residents at nominal charges,” he said.
“The Wi-Fi service will be available within 200 metres of the ration shop. Anyone can access the service on a minimum rental plan,” he added.