BSNL will power Facebook express WiFi program which plans to install 20,000 WiFi hotspots across the country in remote and hilly areas where connectivity is low, according to this PTI report. Facebook signed a MoU with BSNL yesterday for acquiring backhaul spectrum/bandwidth from the state-owned telco for running the project, according to a tweet from the BSNL handle. #BSNL ties up with @facebook to provide backhaul bandwidth at preferential rate. #BSNL Dir CFA NK Gupta with Mr.Munish Seth of Facebook pic.twitter.com/M9zBp58MZs — BSNL India (@BSNLCorporate) May 17, 2017 Facebook has partnerships with several ISPs like AirJaldi in Uttarakhand, LMES in Rajasthan, Tikona in Gujarat and Shaildhar in Meghalaya for its WiFi project. It also counts Airtel as a key Express WiFi partner in both India and African regions. Express WiFi was piloted in India in 2015, with more than 700 WiFi hotspots in partnership with 500 local retailers. With this, Facebook seems to be running something similar to what the India telecom regulator TRAI had proposed in its recommendation in March. TRAI suggested setting up Public Data Office Aggregators (PDOs) that aggregate bandwidth from ISPs/telcos, perform authentication of users, and manage a network of local stores; this was similar to the PCO payphones that proliferated when personal phones were uncommon in India. With Express WiFi, Facebook ties up with small retailers (bakeries, cafés, juice shops, and so on) and distributes Express WiFi vouchers for cheap through those retailers which users use to connect to a nearby Express WiFi hotpsot. In India, Bangalore-based startup WiFi Dabba…
