PM-WANI — the Prime Minister's Wi-Fi Access Network Interface — is the Government of India framework that allows public Wi-Fi hotspots to be operated without a telecom licence. It was designed to remove the regulatory and capital barriers that kept small retailers, kiosks and tea shops out of the public internet access business.
The framework is genuinely well designed, but the terminology confuses people. Three distinct roles are involved, with very different requirements. Here is how they actually fit together.
The three roles
Public Data Office (PDO)
The PDO is the entity that physically owns and operates the hotspot. A shop, a kiosk, a tea stall, a small hotel. The PDO buys internet bandwidth, installs an access point, and offers Wi-Fi access to the public.
The critical point: a PDO requires no licence, no registration and no fee. This is the deliberate centre of the framework's design. Anyone can become a PDO. They simply connect through a registered PDOA.
Public Data Office Aggregator (PDOA)
The PDOA sits behind the PDOs. It authorises and manages a network of Public Data Offices, and handles the back-end: authentication, accounting, user management, billing and compliance.
PDOAs must register with the Department of Telecommunications through the SaralSanchar portal. According to DoT's published requirements:
- The applicant must be a company incorporated under the Companies Act 2013
- Corporate Identity Number (CIN) and self-certified company registration documents are required
- The applicant must comply with applicable FDI guidelines for telecommunications
- PDOAs are registered without payment of any registration fee
- DoT indicates approval within seven working days
- Registration authorises pan-India operation
App Provider
The App Provider builds and operates the application that end users interact with — discovering nearby hotspots, authenticating and purchasing access. App Providers also register with DoT through SaralSanchar, on similar terms.
How a session actually works
- A user opens a WANI-compliant app on their phone
- The app discovers nearby PM-WANI hotspots
- The user selects a hotspot and chooses a data package
- The App Provider authenticates the user and processes payment
- The PDOA authorises the session with the PDO's access point
- The user connects; usage is accounted and revenue is settled between the parties
The user never creates an account with the shop. They never enter an OTP into a captive portal. That friction removal is the whole point.
Which role should you pursue?
Become a PDO if…
You own a physical location with footfall — retail, food service, transport hub, small hospitality — and you want an additional revenue stream from an internet connection you are largely paying for anyway. The barrier is low: bandwidth, an access point, and a PDOA to connect through.
Become a PDOA if…
You are an incorporated company that wants to build and monetise a network of hotspots across many locations. This is the infrastructure-and-operations play. There is no registration fee, but there is real technical substance: authentication systems, accounting, settlement, uptime management across distributed sites, and compliance obligations.
What infrastructure a hotspot actually needs
The regulatory side is the easier half. The part that determines whether a hotspot earns anything is the engineering.
Backhaul is the constraint
The most common failure we see is a hotspot advertised on a connection that was sized for a shop's own use. If fifteen people connect simultaneously on a link intended for a billing terminal, every one of them has a bad experience and none of them buys again. Size the backhaul against expected concurrency at peak footfall, not average.
Access point selection
Consumer routers are built for a household with a dozen devices. Public hotspots need enterprise-class access points with proper client-handling capacity, band steering, airtime fairness and — for outdoor placement — appropriate IP rating and surge protection. This is not the place to save a few thousand rupees.
Coverage planning
A survey tells you where the usable signal actually reaches, which is rarely where the diagram suggested. Concrete, metal shelving, glass and the physical positions people actually stand in all matter more than the coverage circle on a brochure.
Power continuity
An unattended hotspot that drops on every power cut records downtime precisely when footfall is high. UPS backing is not optional for a commercial deployment.
An honest note on economics
PM-WANI is a real opportunity, but revenue per hotspot is modest. The business case works at scale — many locations, low per-site cost, efficient distributed maintenance — or as an adjacent benefit to a location that gains from offering free or subsidised Wi-Fi. A single hotspot in a low-footfall location is unlikely to justify its own infrastructure on paid access alone.
Plan the network, not the hotspot.
Where BS Gateway fits
We handle the infrastructure half: site surveys, coverage planning, backhaul assessment, WANI-compliant access point supply and installation, captive portal integration, and ongoing maintenance across distributed sites. We also provide practical guidance through the SaralSanchar registration process based on DoT's published requirements.
If you are evaluating PM-WANI for a location or a portfolio of locations, a survey will tell you far more than a spreadsheet will.