Browse as you sip tea at shop next door

CHENNAI: It’s not just at upscale coffee shops that you can surf the internet; your local chai seller or grocery store could also offer Wi-Fi for as little as ₹10. A number of these stores across Delhi and Bengaluru have partnered with startups to provide prepaid Wi-Fi packs for between ₹1 and ₹20. The idea is to provide cheap, wireless internet connectivity to urban slums and rural areas. In south Delhi’s Sangam Vihar, close to the Delhi-Haryana border, stationery shop owner Braham Prakash has sold 250 coupons since he set up a Wi-Fi hotspot in his store two-and-ahalf months ago. The biggest seller is a ₹1coupon that gives a user a five-minute connection. “It is mostly younger people, between the ages of 15 and 25, who buy these. They come for five minutes, download a game or a song and leave,” says Prakash.

TOI tried out the five-minute connection for speed and managed to download two 11-minute podcasts.

Pilot projects are running in gram panchayats too

Startups such as Delhibased i2e1or Bengaluru’s

WifiDabba

work either work independently or with TRAI, which has an initiative to set up public data offices (PDO) to make WiFi available to everyone.

The government’s

Centre for Development of Telematics

is also working to set up PDOs by building devices that will cost ₹50,000 and let users buy data for ₹10.

i2e1, which has partnered with TRAI, installs WiFi routers in shops for a one-time charge of ₹2,000. “Our analysis has shown a 23% increase in footfalls in the kirana stores in which we have installed the routers,” said

Satyam Darmora

, co-founder, i2e1.

Shubhendu Sharma

, cofounder, WiFiDabba, says his company is a licensed internet service provider and offers data through small routers powered by fiber optics. “We have a presence in 600 shops around Bengaluru and provide a speed of 50mbps in a radius of 100-200 metres,” said Sharma.

While the startups now cater to urban slums, they are running pilot projects in gram panchayats. They’re banking on the fact that offering data at lower prices will prove economically feasible in the long run as they will save on costs by offering endto-end solutions.

“We create a cloud-based architecture and work with devices that are cheap. Hence charging ₹2,000 makes economic sense and we can realise profits with scale,” said Darmora.

Shopkeepers in more upscale areas can’t see the benefits, though. “I haven’t sold a single coupon. I plan to return this router,” said Jaidev Upadhyay of Pandit tea stall in GK 1 N Block market in Delhi.

“I have to pay the electricity bill. Everyone who comes here has Internet on their phone,” he said.

Other shopkeepers are more optimistic.

Alam

S, owner of a kirana store in Delhi, said he noticed a 50% increase in footfalls post installation of the WiFi router. “The ₹5 pack is the most popular. Women and students come to the store to use the internet,” he said.