Short answer: yes, you can earn money by providing public Wi-Fi under PM-WANI, and DoT does not charge PDOs a licence or registration fee. But the earnings depend entirely on how many people pay to use your hotspot, and the only official income figure I could find is an indicative estimate, not a promise. Treat it as a small add-on for a shop that already has an internet connection and foot traffic.
PM-WANI (Prime Minister Wi-Fi Access Network Interface) is a Department of Telecommunications framework, launched in December 2020, that lets small businesses sell internet access over public Wi-Fi hotspots. It works through four roles, and you will probably be the first one.
| Role | What it does |
| Public Data Office (PDO) | Sets up and runs the Wi-Fi access point and provides broadband to users. This is the shop or small business. |
| Public Data Office Aggregator (PDOA) | Handles user sign-in, plans, payments and accounting for many PDOs. |
| App Provider | Builds the app users install to find hotspots and sign up. |
| Central Registry | Keeps the records of app providers, PDOAs and PDOs. C-DOT maintains it. |
According to the DoT’s PM-WANI guidelines, any entity can be a PDO, and a PDO does not need to register with DoT. PDOAs and app providers are different: they must be companies registered under the Companies Act 2013, and DoT registers them without a registration fee.
A PDO does not provide its own internet. The guidelines say PDOs connect through licensed telecom or internet service providers, so you still need a business broadband connection and a commercial agreement with an ISP, and another one with a PDOA. Check your ISP’s terms before you start, because I could not find what Indian ISPs allow on a home plan.
A user opens an app from a registered app provider, signs up with a mobile OTP, picks a nearby hotspot and pays for a data pack through the PDOA’s payment gateway. The PDOA pays the PDO based on the usage on that PDO’s hotspot and keeps an agreed share. The DoT guidelines do not set a revenue-sharing model, so the split is whatever you agree with your PDOA.
C-DOT’s PDOA booklet assumes a 90:10 split between the PDO and the PDOA, and its example projections assume about ₹4,050 of monthly revenue per PDO. The booklet says its figures are indicative.
A warning: because DoT charges PDOs no registration fee, be careful with anyone asking for a “government registration fee” to make you a PM-WANI PDO. A PDOA can charge for its own services, so ask what each charge is for and get it in writing.
It suits a shop, cafe or small business that already pays for a good connection and has steady customers waiting nearby. It does not suit anyone hoping for steady income from a home setup, because users pay the PDOA only when they connect, and cheap mobile data makes many people skip public Wi-Fi. For a bandwidth-based option that needs no customers, see our guide on how to sell internet data and earn money in India, and our list of passive income ideas in India.
As a user, you install an app from a registered app provider, verify your mobile number with an OTP, choose a nearby PM-WANI hotspot and pay for a data pack through the app. Prices are set by each PDOA, so they differ by provider and hotspot.
Sources: DoT PM-WANI guidelines (eservices.dot.gov.in), the C-DOT PDOA booklet, and the Internet Freedom Foundation’s PM-WANI explainer. Verified October 2026. I could not find current official counts of PDOs, so check the Central Registry for live numbers.
