NEW DELHI: The telecom regulator will soon float a consultation paper on ways to promote Wi-Fi in public places with easy payment options, which could help decongest carrier networks and improve services while deepening broadband availability.The paper will come when top telcos Bharti Airtel , Vodafone India and new entrant Reliance Jio Infocomm are deploying Wi-Fi networks in what could be a new battleground for higher-paying data customers. Airtel and Vodafone have also launched Wi-Fi hotspot apps to offload data traffic and ease pressure on their cellular networks , while Jio is expected to do the same after its launch expected later this year.Use of Wi-Fi in public places hasn’t taken off mainly due to cumbersome authentication procedures and challenges around monetising the services.“We will soon float the consultation which will try to find ways in which both the user of public Wi-Fi and providers are able to benefit,” RS Sharma, Chairman of the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India, told ET.The paper will try to recommend certain ‘payment gateways’ that will ease the usage of Wi-Fi.“Once a user logs into a public Wi-Fi, the provider should make it clear that this is the per-megabyte payment charge or the price for using the Wi-Fi for a time period, say half an hour, at the end of which the provider should also inform the user the charge for usage,” Sharma said, explaining that access to public Wi-Fi and payment for usage should be seamless, painless and transparent.Telcos have historically viewed public Wi-Fi as a threat to their data revenue, although they now recognise that they can add much-needed data capacity without buying expensive spectrum since the technology offering Internet connectivity is delivered over unlicensed, free airwaves.With surging demand for data, the number of commercial Wi-Fi hotspots is expected to jump to 2 million in two years from about 30,000 now, according to industry estimates.“They (telcos) will be able to offload traffic from cellular networks to public Wi-Fi in areas with heavy congestion and this will lead to spectral efficiency, leading to lower capex also,” said Prashant Singhal, global telecom lead at consultancy firm EY. Business models for public Wi-Fi will be crucial because monetisation continues to be a challenge, he added.Wi-Fi monetisation is traditionally challenging in most markets, according to Nigel Eastwood, Group CEO - New Call Telecom, which owns public Wi-Fi provider Ozone.“In places like Europe, this equation is eased by the site access point owner (e.g., coffee shop, restaurant, shopping mall) who normally pays for the equipment and the monthly bandwidth costs,” said Eastwood.This is not the case in emerging markets and in India, where cost sharing and even deployment and safety of equipment become big issues, he added.The consultation process will try to find ways to rope in local entrepreneurs.“We need local entrepreneurs to come and establish Wi-Fi in public places because that, in my view, will tremendously increase the availability of broadband to people without much strain on the spectrum networks in the country,” Sharma said.The world over, this is one of the key factors driving the adoption of Wi-Fi in public places and could be crucial in India given the limited spectrum available in the country.According to a report by the Wireless Broadband Alliance, in 2014, offloading of traffic from cellular networks was one of the chief reasons for mobile service providers to provide public Wi-Fi.Besides launching Wi-Fi apps, Airtel and Vodafone have formed a joint venture - Firefly Networks - to deploy Wi-Fi technology in public places. Jio has deployed 4G-backed public Wi-Fi in some parts of Kolkata, Varanasi and Gujarat, besides in stadiums during sports events.According to the WBA report, “The main approach has been mobile data offload in which high bandwidth, low value traffic was pushed off the precious cellular network and on to Wi-Fi, thus improving the experience for customers left on 3G/4G.”