Free WiFi service down for over a year in Delhi; govt working on new plan

Launched in December 2019, the free WiFi project was among the Aam Aadmi Party’s (AAP) key poll promises. Users could sign up with their cellphone number and receive up to 15 GB of free monthly data with a 200 Mbps Internet speed. At the time, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal had said: “Like we treat water and power as basic lifelines, we are also going to make Internet usage free”.

In December 2022, sources said, the project stopped after the three-year contract given to a private service provider for the initiative ended. “The (Public Works) Department sent a proposal to the Delhi government to renew the project, but there was no approval/ intimation to continue the scheme,” said a source.

These hotspots were installed at parks, bus stops, Metro stations, markets, and government buildings in all 70 Assembly constituencies, going by the government’s outcome budget report (April to December 2022). Data also showed an average of 7 lakh daily users availed of free internet and 99% were satisfied with the network speed.

As per the outcome budget 2022-23, a budget of Rs 61 crore was allocated to the project for the fiscal year. Officials said more than 20 lakh people used the free service in the three years.

While the service provider/ vendor bore the capital investment and infrastructure costs, the government bore the operating costs.

The PWD was asked to provide free WiFi till December 15, 2022. The service stopped on December 16 that year, a week after the MCD poll results were announced.

Another senior PWD official said: “It has been more than a year and there is no direction from above (government) to resume or restart the project. Initially, when the hotspots went down, complaints poured in from those who used the facility in the initial weeks before they stopped. A verbal discussion took place on re-launching the project in 2023, but there was no official meeting on the matter.”