Public WiFi under India's PM-WANI framework for shops, hotels, restaurants, markets, bus stands and villages - iberry handles authorisation, accounting and the hotspot network as a registered PDOA and PDO.
PM-WANI (Prime Minister's Wi-Fi Access Network Interface) is the Department of Telecommunications' framework for public WiFi across India. It splits public WiFi into roles. A PDO (Public Data Office) installs and runs the WiFi access points. A PDOA (Public Data Office Aggregator) aggregates PDOs and handles authorisation and accounting. An App Provider runs the app users sign up with, verifying their mobile number by OTP. C-DoT maintains the Central Registry that ties them together.
iberry is registered as both a PDOA and a PDO. That means we can run PM-WANI hotspots ourselves, and businesses can become PDOs under iberry as their aggregator.
The user installs a PM-WANI app and verifies their mobile number by OTP with the App Provider.
The app shows PM-WANI hotspots nearby, and the user picks one.
The access point asks the PDOA's captive portal to authorise the user, using a token from the app.
A new subscriber chooses a data pack and pays through the PDOA's digital payment options; the pack is activated and the user is online.
Under the DoT guidelines, any entity can be a PDO, and a PDO needs no registration with DoT - it installs PM-WANI compliant access points under an agreement with a PDOA and buys its internet bandwidth from a licensed telecom or internet service provider. Shops, tea stalls, restaurants, hotels, hostels, colleges and panchayats can all offer public WiFi this way.
iberry, as PDOA, registers your access points with the Central Registry, authorises users, runs the captive portal and payments, keeps the accounts and stores user data in India for the one year the guidelines require. Commercial terms are agreed per PDO - talk to us about your site.
PM-WANI suits public places where users come and go and pay for data packs. A hotel, school or office that wants its own branded login, room or student logins, and its own rules usually wants a private hotspot instead - see captive portal software. Many sites run both. For the logging rules that apply to WiFi in India, see WiFi log compliance.
Yes. iberry is registered under PM-WANI as a PDOA (Public Data Office Aggregator) and also operates as a PDO (Public Data Office).
No. Under the DoT's WANI guidelines any entity can be a PDO, no licence fee is charged and no registration with DoT is required. The PDO works under an agreement with a PDOA, such as iberry, and buys bandwidth from a licensed ISP or telecom provider.
The guidelines require the PDOA to store user data for one year, and complete user data and usage logs must be stored within India.
A PDO offers public WiFi data packs to users through its PDOA. The commercial terms between the PDO and iberry are agreed per site; contact us with your location and footfall.
PM-WANI compliant WiFi access points. The guidelines ask PDOAs to make every effort to deploy Indian-designed technology and Made in India access points, and we plan sites accordingly.
Summary based on DoT's "Wi-Fi Access Network Interface (WANI) Framework and Guidelines for Registration". It is not legal advice.
Tell us the location, the kind of place and the internet line available. See also airport and public place WiFi.
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