Centre is finalizing rules for Wi-Fi offloading to ensure seamless connectivity

For users, this would mean smartphones would automatically redirect a portion of data traffic from cellular networks to nearby Wi-Fi networks when available—including hotspots under the PM-WANI (Prime Minister Wi-Fi Access Network Interface) scheme—without interrupting calls, SMS, or applications.

This will help reduce congestion on crowded mobile networks, improve speed in indoor and high-traffic areas, and enable operators to use their limited mobile spectrum more efficiently, often without users noticing any change.

“Telecom operators in India do offload traffic to Wi-Fi in specific scenarios, but the practice has varied widely and lacked a nationally accepted technical framework," a government official said, on condition of anonymity.

“The new draft standard aims to define how Wi-Fi can work seamlessly with mobile networks, including public Wi-Fi, while ensuring there are no call drops during network switches and that there is a common offloading framework that works across operators," the official added.

Seamless connectivity

The government wants operators to ensure that Voice over Wi-Fi (VoWiFi) works properly, including emergency calls, standard text messages over the internet, and multimedia calling services, while ensuring that all authentication and data transport mechanisms shall comply with national security directives and lawful interception, according to the draft rules.

The rules also want operators to support open roaming and interoperability between different vendors to allow Wi-Fi offloading to scale without friction as users move across locations and networks.

The Telecommunication Engineering Centre (TEC) under the department of telecommunications (DoT) is currently working to formalize the rules.

“Telecom operators have been using VoWiFi. However, there has been a lack of a common standard that governs this. The exciting part is that for the first time, the government also wants normal SMS to happen over the internet-based network, shifting away from old 2G technology," said Satya N. Gupta, former principal adviser at the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai).

According to Gupta, the inclusion of PM-WANI hotspots indicates the government's focus on growing public Wi-Fi hotspots. Gupta, however, said the new standard should be in the form of an essential requirement for operators, rather than a generic one, which would help telecom operators, especially BSNL and Vodafone Idea, in saving costs.

For telecom operators, offloading mobile traffic onto Wi-Fi, especially in public hotspots, can be beneficial in rural and remote areas, as it reduces mobile network congestion and lowers their costs for rural data delivery.

In 2023, however, when the discussions on license-free use of the 6 GHz band were going on, the Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI) said Wi-Fi services have negligible data offload from mobile networks because India is a mobile-first nation, with more than 95% of internet users accessing mobile broadband data.

Mint's emailed queries to the COAI and the TEC remained unanswered.

“As data demand continues to outpace spectrum availability, Wi-Fi offloading becomes a long-term capacity strategy, not just a cost lever. Over time, this allows operators to stretch spectrum investments, manage peak loads more intelligently, and deliver more stable indoor performance," said Vinish Bawa, partner and telecom leader at professional services firm PwC India.

"For users, this enables a future where network quality improves even as usage grows, without constant dependence on new spectrum auctions," he added.

According to Bawa, with the new standard, the government is positioning Wi-Fi offloading as a foundational layer for future network capacity, not just a fallback option. “The standard looks ahead to large-scale, predictable, and policy-aligned offloading, where Wi-Fi is designed upfront to work with mobile cores, digital identity, security frameworks, and public infrastructure. This sets the stage for Wi-Fi to play a sustained role as data volumes grow, rather than remaining a tactical add-on," he said.

The public Wi-Fi hotspot scheme

In India, the 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz spectrums are open for unlicensed use for Wi-Fi. The country is also expected to license a portion of the 6 GHz band soon, which would significantly open up more capacity and bandwidth.

There are over 400,000 PM-WANI hotspots in the country. Launched in 2020, the scheme has struggled to take off over the last five years. The government had aimed to deploy about 10 million public Wi-Fi hotspots across the country by 2022, and 50 million by 2030.

Analysts believe that the inclusion of PM-WANI in Wi-Fi offloading could reposition the public Wi-Fi hotspot scheme that aims to bridge the digital divide and become part of a broader connectivity ecosystem.

“If integrated effectively, PM-WANI can evolve from scattered hotspots into a structured public access layer that supports growing data demand in transport hubs, urban centres, and public services. Over time, this linkage could shift PM-WANI from a policy experiment to an operational component of national digital infrastructure," Bawa said.

According to Nanovise, a managed Wi-Fi services provider registered under PM-WANI, telecom operators can save ₹9.50 per gigabyte with data offloading over Wi-Fi. In 10,000 villages, taking into account 12,500 GB data offload per month, the potential annual savings are estimated to be ₹1,425 crore, it said in a 7 May note on its website.