Powered by PM-WANI · Government of India
As seen in The Economic Times

Own a Wi-Fi hotspot.
In a neighbourhood that needs one.

India has 1 billion internet users. Yet 85 out of 100 Indian homes still have no Wi-Fi. 4G reaches them. Broadband Wi-Fi doesn't. They pay 100× for mobile data they shouldn't have to.

For ₹19,899, you buy one Wi-Fi hotspot in India. Not for your home. For a kirana shop, a classroom, a neighbourhood that needs one. Dabba installs and runs it. Locals pay to use it. You earn rewards for 7 years, renewable.

Watch the story“This is what your ₹19,899 builds.”
1,30,000+
Hotspots live
6.47 lakh
Indians online daily
₹5 Cr+
Monthly revenue
25+
Cities, growing
Live network data, independently tracked by Messari Research
· the word every Indian already knows

One word. Twelve languages.
One billion Indians.

From Punjab to Tamil Nadu, Bengal to Gujarat. Every Indian language has its own word for “the box that holds something precious.” It is the same word. Spoken in the script of your home.

डब्बा
Hindi
डबा
Marathi
ডব্বা
Bengali
ડબ્બો
Gujarati
ਡੱਬਾ
Punjabi
டப்பா
Tamil
డబ్బా
Telugu
ಡಬ್ಬಿ
Kannada
ഡബ്ബ
Malayalam
ଡବା
Odia
ডবা
Assamese
ڈبہ
Urdu

Your grandmother kept her gold in a dabba.
Her grandmother kept letters in one.
Now Dabba holds something just as precious. India's internet.

The 24 crore homes

A grandmother in Patna burns through her monthly data pack trying to make one video call to her son. A 12-year-old in Latur opens her coaching video, watches it buffer, watches her data vanish. A kirana owner in Shillong loses a ₹2,000 UPI sale because the signal dropped at the wrong second.

24 crore Indian households live this way. Not because they don't have a SIM card. Because they don't have Wi-Fi.

The towers reach them. The fibre doesn't. Mobile data costs them 100× what a fixed broadband subscriber pays per gigabyte. The economics, for any telco at scale, simply don't work in a lane of Cuttack or a panchayat in Banswara.

But the wires are already there. 1.5 lakh local cable operators run them through every neighbourhood in India. They have the access. They have the trust. They've been waiting for someone to give them the tools. Dabba did.

How it works

Three steps.
Then it runs itself.

Buy one

₹19,899. You get a digital ownership certificate for one hotspot, issued on Solana, held in your wallet.

An LCO deploys it

A verified local cable operator installs the hotspot where demand is real. A home, a shop, a classroom. You never touch the hardware.

You earn as it runs

Rewards flow to your certificate automatically as people use the network. Track every rupee in the Dabba app.

प्रधानमंत्री वाई-फ़ाई एक्सेस नेटवर्क इंटरफ़ेस · Government of India

This isn't our mission.
It's India's mission.
We just happen to be its largest builder.

Digital India is not just a programme. It is a way of life. The benefits of technology must reach every Indian, every village, every home.

Attributed to Hon'ble Prime Minister of India, on the launch of PM-WANI · 2020
Photo: A Dabba hotspot live in India — what PM-WANI made possible.

In December 2020, the Union Cabinet approved PM-WANI (Prime Minister's WiFi Access Network Interface). A public WiFi framework designed to bring a billion Indians online without waiting for telecom giants.

The vision was simple. Every kirana shop, every tea stall, every panchayat office could become a WiFi access point. Run by locals. Owned by Indians. Regulated by the Government of India.

Six years on, Dabba is the country's largest implementer of PM-WANI. By a margin most policymakers didn't think was possible.

When you buy a Dabba hotspot, you're not backing a private company. You're contributing to a national mission, in the way the framework was designed to be funded. By Indians, for India.

Framework
PM-WANI
Approved by the Union Cabinet, December 2020. Notified by the Department of Telecommunications. Dabba is its largest implementer in India.
2014
Digital India launched
PM commits to bringing every Indian online. Aadhaar + UPI + JAM trinity begins.
2020
PM-WANI approved
Union Cabinet clears framework for public WiFi. Local entrepreneurs licensed to deploy.
2025
Dabba crosses 1 lakh
Hotspots deployed across 4 states. Recognised as India's largest PM-WANI operator.
2026
India can own it
DBT goes live on Solana. Indian residents can now own a hotspot via UPI for ₹19,899.
The marketplace

Dabba isn't a telco.
It's a marketplace.

A telco builds a tower and waits. A marketplace coordinates the people who already have what the network needs. Four roles. One flywheel. Each part feeds the next.

PM-WANIFRAMEWORKLCOLocal cable operatoralready in every neighbourhoodDABBAHardware + softwarethe platformOWNERYou · ₹19,899 eachthe capitalCUSTOMERA neighbourhoodthe demand
PM-WANI is the framework. Dabba is the marketplace. Each role keeps the next one moving.
ROLE 01

The LCOsupply

1.5 lakh local cable operators run wires through every Indian neighbourhood. They have the access. They have the trust. They were waiting for someone to give them more than TV.

Brings: Wires, trust, last-mile labour
Gets: A second revenue line. A ladder out of being a sub-contractor.
ROLE 02

Dabbaplatform

Ten years of building. Hardware designed for Indian power and Indian weather. Software for billing, KYC, PM-WANI compliance. We don't compete with LCOs. We equip them.

Brings: Tech, billing, regulatory, scale
Gets: A platform fee. Skin in every hotspot deployed.
ROLE 03

The Ownercapital

You. And tens of thousands like you. Each ₹19,899 funds one specific hotspot. One owner, one hotspot. The network reaches the neighbourhood in Cuttack and the panchayat in Banswara one owner at a time.

Brings: Capital, belief, patience
Gets: 7 years of login rewards · renewable thereafter
ROLE 04

The Customerdemand

A 12-year-old in Latur. A grandmother in Patna. A kirana owner in Shillong. They have a SIM card and a real need: cheap, reliable, neighbourhood Wi-Fi that isn't capped at 1.5 GB a day.

Brings: Demand, usage, monthly subscription
Gets: Wi-Fi at the price of mobile data, sometimes less.
More ownersMore hotspots deployedMore LCOs onboardedMore neighbourhoods coveredMore customers payingMore owners want in

The flywheel only spins one way. Each turn brings down the cost of bringing the next neighbourhood online.

This is the part PM-WANI was designed for.

Not to subsidise broadband. Not to wait for a telecom giant to figure it out. To empower the local cable operator who already knows your neighbourhood better than any telco engineer ever will.

An LCO who used to make a thin margin on cable TV now adds a meaningful new monthly revenue line. They hire an installer. They train a teenager from the neighbourhood for support. One hotspot becomes ten. Ten becomes fifty. Cable wallah becomes Wi-Fi wallah becomes small business owner.

A revenue line becomes a livelihood. A livelihood becomes a family that sends its child to a real coaching class. The line item that doesn't fit on a balance sheet, but is the part that matters most.

The network, in numbers

Not a plan. Already running.

Live data, independently tracked by Messari Research ↗
1,30,000+

Hotspots deployed

25 cities, 4 states. Up from 1,000 just 18 months ago.

6.47L+

Daily active users

Real households streaming 1,184 TB every day. Q1 2026.

₹5Cr+

Monthly revenue

From paying subscribers. Not speculation.

26,000+

Hotspots owned worldwide

Across 70+ countries. India's turn now.

95%+

Network uptime

Commercial-grade, maintained by 75+ LCO partners.

85%

Indian homes without Wi-Fi

TRAI Chairman, 2026. The gap is the opportunity.

The infrastructure bet of a generation

India built its steel. Then its textiles. Then its telecom.
Who builds its WiFi?

Every wave of Indian infrastructure rewarded the ones who built it early. Not the ones who waited for proof.

1907

Steel

Pre-Independence · Jamshedpur

The first Indian to industrialise steel did it before Independence. Today, every flyover, every Vande Bharat, every nail in your home traces back to that bet.

1991

Liberalisation

The Reforms · 1991

The mid-cap promoters who survived the licence raj and bet on '92 became the wealth-creation stories of the next two decades. Twenty years of compounding starts at moment zero.

2016

Mobile Internet

The Data Reset

When data pricing collapsed from ₹150/GB to ₹10/GB, 50 crore Indians came online overnight. The shareholders who held through that launch are the wealth-creation story of the decade.

2026

Fixed broadband

Dabba · PM-WANI

The next 24 crore Indian homes will not get Wi-Fi from a tower. They'll get it from a hotspot in their neighbourhood. The owners of those hotspots are who you become for ₹19,899.

This isn't a bet on a token. It's a bet on the same India that built UPI, that put a rover on the moon, that made vaccines for half the world.

The grandfathers and grandmothers who got rich after 1991 didn't have ten reasons. They had one. They believed in India before everyone else did. Your turn.

See ownership tiers 1 to 100+
Ownership tiers

Start with one. Or build a portfolio.

A first-time owner buys one. A serious operator builds a fleet. Each certificate is independent. Different LCO, different city, different deployment date.

Single

1 hotspot
₹19,899
₹19,899 each · all taxes in

The natural starting point. One hotspot, one neighbourhood, one piece of India online. Most owners begin here.

Buy one →

Family

5 hotspots
₹94,500
₹18,900 each · 5% off

For families building a small portfolio across cities. Each hotspot deployed by a different LCO, diversified by geography and demand.

Buy five →

Patron

100+ hotspots
Speak to us
Custom pricing · LCO matching

For HNIs, family offices, and businesses who want a meaningful position in India's broadband layer. Choose your states. Choose your LCOs. Build with us.

Talk to founders →

Bulk pricing reflects shared deployment costs. Each certificate remains an independent on-chain asset, individually transferable. Rewards depend on usage, location, and network growth. No guaranteed returns.

CERTIFICATE OF OWNERSHIPdabbaLITE · EDITION ONEHOTSPOT IDDBN-IN-08421OWNER5ckEyE.....qDXoCPM-WANIVERIFIEDOne hotspot. On-chain. Yours.
Own one

Dabba Lite. Edition one.

A digital certificate of ownership for one commercial-grade WiFi hotspot in India. One-time purchase. No subscriptions. No hardware to manage.

₹19,899
One-time · all taxes included
  • Digital ownership certificate · held in your wallet
  • Physical hotspot installed & maintained by a verified LCO
  • PM-WANI compliant · Government-approved framework
  • Pay by UPI, card, or net-banking · 2 minute checkout
  • Transferable. Sell or gift any time.
  • Hardware designed & assembled in India
Buy now · ₹19,899 →

A Dabba hotspot purchase is a digital ownership certificate representing one hotspot on the network. Rewards depend on usage, location, and network growth. No guaranteed returns.

As covered in
The Economic Times
Forbes India
The Times of India
The Indian Express
India Today
Financial Express
YourStory
Messari
See all 16 articles ↗

Backed by

Y Combinator
Multicoin Capital
Borderless Capital
Generation Ventures
Karam Lakshman

Karam Lakshman

CEO · Co-founder

Y Combinator alum. Previously ran the internet & mobile fund at CIIE, IIM Ahmedabad. Leads Dabba's engineering and network architecture.

Shubhendu Sharma

Shubhendu Sharma

COO · Co-founder

Y Combinator alum. 15+ years in telecom product. Ex-Mahindra British Telecom. Works directly with TRAI and DoT on India's PM-WANI policy.

Questions, answered

Everything reasonable to ask.

Is this legal in India?
Yes. Dabba operates under PM-WANI, the Government of India's 2020 framework for public WiFi. Every hotspot is compliant. We work directly with TRAI and the Department of Telecommunications.
What exactly am I buying?
A digital ownership certificate for one Dabba hotspot, like a property paper, held in your digital wallet. It proves you own the hotspot. The physical router is installed and maintained by a local cable operator. You never handle hardware.
Do I need to understand crypto?
No. Pay with UPI, card, or net-banking. Your certificate sits in a wallet that Dabba helps you set up in under 2 minutes. If you've used Paytm or Google Pay, you're already there.
What returns can I expect?
No guaranteed returns. Rewards depend on deployment, usage, and network growth. The network already earns ₹5 Cr+ monthly from paying subscribers, but what your specific hotspot earns depends on its LCO, city, and demand.
How long do I earn rewards for?
Reward rights apply for 7 years from the date your certificate is minted. After that, you can renew your rights for another term by paying a renewal fee defined in the DBT tokenomics. Without renewal, rewards stop, but the certificate remains transferable. Full schedule on dabba.network.
Can I sell my certificate?
Yes. Because ownership lives on-chain, you can transfer or sell your certificate any time, to another Indian buyer, or to anyone worldwide. The hotspot keeps running. The new owner earns from that moment, for the remainder of your 7-year term.
Who's behind Dabba?
Karam Lakshman (CEO) and Shubhendu Sharma (COO) founded Dabba in Bengaluru in 2016. Both Y Combinator alumni. Shubhendu works with the Government of India on PM-WANI policy.

One hotspot. One neighbourhood. One India online.

The grandfathers who got rich after 1991 had one thing in common. They believed in India before everyone else did. The Indians who got online after Jio had one thing in common. They used what someone else built. You don't have to choose between those two stories. Buy one Dabba hotspot, and you're in both.

Buy a hotspot · ₹19,899 →

When India came online, you were the reason.

The team that's building India's Wi-Fi.
Solana Summit · India · 2024