(a) whether the Government proposes to provide internet broadband facilities to non-electrified villages and the villages which have less than 100 population;
(b) if so, the details thereof along with the villages so far connected, State-wise;
(c) if not, the State-wise reasons therefor; and
(d) the steps taken by the Government to improve the broadband services?
THE MINISTER OF STATE (IC) OF THE MINISTRY OF COMMUNICATIONS &
MINISTER OF STATE IN THE MINISTRY OF RAILWAYS
(SHRI MANOJ SINHA)
(a) to (d) BharatNet is being implemented in a phased manner for providing broadband connectivity to all the Gram Panchayats (GPs) in the country. Phase-I of BharatNet for connecting 1 lakh Gram Panchayats has been completed in December, 2017. As on 02.12.2018, a total of 1,16,411 GPs have been made service ready. State-wise list of service ready Gram Panchayats is at Annexure.
Further, as part of the BharatNet project, Telecom Commission on 11.07.2018 has approved a Last Mile connectivity model for providing Wi-Fi connectivity to Government institutions. At each GP, 5 Access Points (APs) are being set up, and out of these Access Points, 3 APs are to be installed at Government institutions and 2 APs at public places.
The following schemes, funded by Universal Service Obligation Fund (USOF), are also under implementation for providing broadband services through Wi-Fi hotspots in the country:
(i) Public Wi-Fi hotspots are being set up by Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) at its 25,000 Rural Telephone Exchanges.
(ii) Wi-Fi Choupals are being set up by CSC at 5,000 Gram Panchayats.
(iii) Wi-Fi hotspots are being set up by RailTel at 200 rural Railway Stations.
So far, Wi-Fi hotspots have been installed at 39,359 GPs and out of them, services are being provided in 10,775 GPs, catering to more than 11 lakh subscribers with a data usage of over 50 Tera Bytes (TB) per month.