State run telco and internet provider BSNL is working on setting up 40,000 WiFi hotspots across the country to make up for the lack of its own 4G services, reports NDTV. As of now, BSNL claims to have deployed 500 WiFi hotspots, with the plan to increase it to 2,500 by the end of this financial year. It’s not clear if BSNL will allow only its own customers to use the WiFi, or let anyone use the network for a small fee. The latter option would be better for the company, which has been struggling to keep customers, as it provides customers with an option to use BSNL’s services without changing their SIM cards. Other than this BSNL claims it will also set up 25,000 mobile towers in the country, investing Rs 5,500 crore for the infrastructure. Facebook tieup for WiFi: In November, Facebook and BSNL entered into a partnership to create 100 WiFi hotspots in rural areas in India, for which Facebook would invest Rs 5 crore per year to buy bandwidth from BSNL. This initiative would start off with 100 villages, with Rs 5 lakh spent per year per site for buying bandwidth from BSNL. Note that in June, the telecom operator tied up with the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) to provide WiFi hotspots for tourists at the Taj Mahal. In February, it launched free WiFi in Varanasi and in April, it launched public WiFi in Hyderabad. MediaNama’s Take: Public WiFi should be able to offer 4G…
