Telecom Commission approves Wi-Fi services on flights in India

New Delhi: Flyers will soon be able to avail data and voice services during flights with the Telecom Commission, the highest decision-making body at the department of telecommunications (DoT), approving the much-awaited proposal at its meeting on Tuesday, telecom secretary Aruna Sundarajan told reporters.

The government will now work towards creating the licence framework for a special category of service providers called ‘In-flight connectivity provider’.

Indian and foreign airlines would be free to offer services to passengers but only over Indian airspace. Moreover, the pricing would be left to airlines and the provider.

The Commission also approved the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India’s (Trai) recommendations on creating a framework to boost public Wi-Fi hotspots.

“We believe this would boost job creation by creating public data offices (PDO),” Sundarajan said.

Trai had recommended creating these PDOs similar to the PCOs or public calling offices. These PDOs would offer sachet size data packs starting Rs2.

There are at present 38,000 Wi-Fi hotspots in the country and the DoT aims to have over 5 lakh by December.

In what will bring relief to consumers, the commission also gave its nod to creation of a three-tier structure for grievance redressal by creation of a telecom ombudsman.

“TRAI Act will be amended and the regulator will be given powers to create this ombudsman,” Sundarajan said.