Directorate of Information & Publicity
Government of NCT of Delhi

DIRECTORATE OF INFORMATION & PUBLICITY
GOVERNMENT OF NCT OF DELHI
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New Delhi: 24/06/2016

• Delhi government announces its free internet services project for the people of Delhi
• The Wi-Fi project will begin from East Delhi by year-end
• 1,000 hot spots to begin with at 571 locations

The Delhi Government intends to bridge the digital divide by providing free internet services to the citizens of Delhi to fulfill minimum internet requirements of a common man.

The announcement was made by the Dialogue and Development Commission vice-chairman Mr Ashish Khetan on Friday.
Salient features of the Delhi government policy are as follows :
The job towards implementation of Wi-Fi in Delhi has been allocated to Department of Information Technology (DIT), Delhi government.
1. It was decided to start the project in East Delhi area first.
2. As per a TRAI report, on the basis of average consumption of internet, daily free limit per user shall be decided to satisfy the basic needs.
3. 1,000 hot spot zones with three access points within 571 identified locations of east Delhi area to be taken initially. The target is to have functional hot spots by the end of this year (2016)
4. Shortly a RFP will be floated.

The preparation for Wi-Fi project included :
1. A three days Stakeholder Consultation Meeting was organized by DIT, GNCTD on 23rd, 24th and 27th April 2015 for exchange of knowledge, identification of challenges, best practices and to discuss and finalize the implementation approach.
2. The meeting was planned to ensure active involvement of various stakeholders from industry, society, technical community and various departments and agencies of the government to ensure that the objectives of the project are met out in the best possible manner, the challenges are anticipated and managed in a structured way.
3. An expert committee was also constituted comprising of officers from below mentioned organizations:-
a. Telecom Regulatory Authority of India
b. Department of Electronics & Information Technology, GoI
c. Department of Telecommunications, GoI
d. Finance Department, Govt. of NCT of Delhi
e. National Informatics Centre
f. Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi
4. The expert panel, special invitees and other stakeholder deliberated upon: -
a. Free Wi-Fi Definition:
b. Business Model:
c. Right of Way:
d. Advertising:
e. Premium Services Charges
f. Usage of existing services and then offloading of the services
g. Defining hotspot
h. Identification of hotspot locations
i. Criteria for hotspot zones
5. Department of Information Technology also actively consulted Delhi Dialogue Commission in preparation of RFP.
6. M/s PWC Consultancy services was also engaged for specific aspects of implementing of Wi-Fi in Delhi.
7. It was again reviewed at the level by officers of Department of Information Technology and experts from Delhi Dialogue Commission in the light of observations/comments/opinions/recommendations/advices from following to finalize RFP:
a. Stakeholder Consultation meet
b. Report of World WiFi forum
c. Expert Panel
d. Comments of Special Invitees.
e. Report of Consultant PwC on specific point
Opinion of different experts is taken on business model, size of projects, financial model, technology suitability, availability of fiber for backhaul in different areas, coverage parameters, SLAs etc.
Delhi government has also decided in principle to provide fibre-to-home services. This is aimed at providing high-speed and quality internet services to the residents of the national capital.
Department of Information Technology will be the nodal agency for this ambitious project.

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