Karam Lakshman, CEO of Wifi Dabba, argues that developing countries need new infrastructure models if they want to close the digital divide at scale. In his view, Decentralized Physical Infrastructure Networks, or DePIN, offer a practical way to expand connectivity in markets where traditional broadband deployment has been too slow, too capital-intensive, or too concentrated in the hands of a few large operators. India, he says, is one of the clearest examples of why this model matters.
Speaking about the country’s connectivity challenges, Lakshman described India as a major economy with enormous internet demand but an obvious infrastructure deficit. Although India is now the world’s fifth-largest economy and has one of the largest internet user bases globally, it still trails leading economies in fixed broadband access. According to Lakshman, nearly half of India’s 1.4 billion people still do not have internet access, highlighting the scale of the problem that mobile expansion alone has not fully solved.
Why fixed broadband still matters
Lakshman stressed that the rapid rollout of 4G and 5G should not obscure the importance of fixed broadband. In his assessment, fixed broadband plays a critical role in filling the gaps left by mobile coverage, especially in rural and suburban areas that major telecom operators often deprioritize. While mobile networks can support mass access, reliable fixed infrastructure remains essential for broader digital inclusion and long-term economic development.
To illustrate the scale of India’s lag, Lakshman compared the country’s fixed broadband subscriptions with those of other major economies. He said India has just over 30 million fixed broadband subscriptions, compared with 636 million in China and 127 million in the United States. In his view, that disparity is not merely a telecom statistic. It reflects a wider digital development gap that affects innovation, productivity, and economic growth.
For Lakshman, this shortfall is exactly why India needs a different infrastructure approach. Rather than relying only on conventional telecom capital expenditure and centralized deployment models, he sees DePIN as a way to unlock new participation and bring “the next billion internet users” online.
What DePIN means in practice
Lakshman described DePIN as a framework that allows real-world infrastructure assets to be tokenized and coordinated through decentralized networks. These assets can include communications infrastructure, weather-tracking systems, compute networks, and other physical systems that require capital, maintenance, and broad participation. Traditionally, he said, such networks have required enormous funding and have tended to concentrate market power among a small number of large players.
The decentralized model, by contrast, is designed to widen participation. People can contribute by deploying hardware, validating parts of the network, or providing operational and support services. In return, they receive rewards tied to their contributions. Lakshman argues that this structure helps solve one of the toughest infrastructure problems in developing markets: how to mobilize enough capital and local involvement without waiting for a handful of large companies to find every underserved area commercially attractive.
In this framing, DePIN is not just a new financing concept. It is also an operating model that tries to align incentives among users, operators, and infrastructure builders. The network grows because more participants have a reason to help expand and maintain it.
The blockchain and Web3 component
One of Lakshman’s central arguments is that the Web3 or blockchain layer is not decorative; it is foundational to the DePIN model. He said blockchain technology makes it possible to build a transparent network with multiple users and operators, where contributions and rewards can be tracked in a verifiable way. That transparency matters in decentralized systems because trust cannot depend solely on a central authority.
According to Lakshman, pooling resources through a blockchain-based coordination system makes infrastructure easier to deploy where it is needed most. It can also reduce service costs for end users by distributing participation more widely and improving incentive alignment. He described this as a flywheel effect: operators and contributors are rewarded, more infrastructure gets deployed, connectivity improves, and the network becomes more useful and more economical over time.
His broader point is that traditional infrastructure models struggle to generate this kind of distributed momentum, particularly in regions where returns are uncertain and deployment costs are high. DePIN, in his view, offers a mechanism for scaling access in a way that centralized telecom structures often cannot.
Why India is a critical test bed
Lakshman believes India is especially well suited to testing whether DePIN can work at meaningful scale. The country combines massive unmet demand, a large population, and a telecom market that is competitive but still uneven in terms of infrastructure distribution. Even though the market is heavily influenced by major players such as Jio and Airtel and is moving rapidly toward a 5G future, Lakshman argues that important parts of the connectivity landscape remain underserved.
In particular, rural and semi-urban regions can be less attractive to major operators focused on return profiles and scale efficiencies. That leaves room for alternative models that can deploy fixed wireless or broadband infrastructure more locally and at lower cost. If a decentralized network model can gain traction in India, Lakshman suggests, it could offer a blueprint for other developing countries facing similar structural gaps.
He also emphasized that India’s connectivity problems are not unique. Across the developing world, countries face comparable shortages in broadband access, capital allocation, and infrastructure reach. That makes India more than a domestic opportunity. It becomes a proving ground for a model that, if successful, could be adapted internationally.
Wifi Dabba’s role and growth strategy
Discussing Wifi Dabba specifically, Lakshman said the company has already spent several years operating in the Indian market and has worked with Google and the Indian government on Wi-Fi initiatives. As the company’s network expands, he sees opportunities not only in connectivity but also in vertical integration through additional services.
Those services could include cloud offerings and financial services layered on top of the connectivity platform. The logic is straightforward: if a company can become a trusted access provider in underserved markets, it may be able to build broader digital relationships with both users and local operators. That, in turn, could diversify revenue sources while improving the overall customer experience.
Still, the core message from Lakshman is not simply about one company’s product roadmap. It is about how decentralized coordination could make infrastructure businesses more adaptable in places where traditional deployment models have left major gaps.
Beyond internet access
Lakshman also framed DePIN as a model with applications far beyond internet connectivity. In his description, it can serve as a hyper-growth platform for almost any infrastructure category, particularly where systems are still immature and demand is rising quickly. He specifically pointed to areas such as communications, mobility, and compute as sectors where decentralized infrastructure approaches may find strong product-market fit.
His argument is that developing markets offer “greenfield” conditions. Unlike many developed economies, where major infrastructure is already built and markets are saturated, large parts of the developing world still need foundational systems. That creates room for new models that can expand quickly, lower costs, and stay technologically current because they are designed to incentivize continual participation and expansion.
From that perspective, DePIN becomes less a niche crypto narrative and more an infrastructure thesis. If the model can solve real-world problems more cheaply and more inclusively, its strongest opportunities may emerge not in the most mature markets, but in the places where infrastructure deficits remain most severe.
A developing-world thesis for DePIN
Lakshman’s most direct conclusion is that the next major DePIN success story is likely to come from the developing world. His reasoning is practical rather than ideological: this is where the need is greatest, the infrastructure base is weakest, and the social and economic gains from improved access could be most significant. In those settings, decentralized networks are not just an experiment in alternative coordination. They are a response to real shortages in connectivity and essential services.
Whether DePIN can consistently deliver on those promises remains a question the market will continue to test. But Lakshman’s case for India is clear. The country’s broadband deficit, large underserved population, and need for scalable innovation make it a natural arena for experimentation. If decentralized infrastructure can prove itself there, its relevance to the wider developing world could become much harder to ignore.