Back in the 2000s, India was one of the slowest countries to support roll-out of public WiFi hotspots as a relatively low cost way to improve communications infrastructure. Amid the original hotspot boom, would-be service providers in India were held back by regulatory restrictions. These were steadily eased, and now the government recognizes the role WiFi can play in improving Internet access, and has given the green light for a nationwide hotspot network to be based on public data offices (PDOs). The network will be set up and managed by public data office aggregators (PDOAs), which will also deliver broadband services to the end users, and handle accounting and administrative tasks. A new app will allow users to register and…