(a) the number of mobile telephone connections in the country during each of the last two years, State/UT-wise;
(b) the steps taken by the Government to improve mobile communication penetration in rural, remote and backward areas, specially Jharkhand;
(c) whether the Government proposes to make mobile phones affordable in rural areas by bringing down the cost and tarrif; and
(d) if so, the details thereof?
THE MINISTER OF STATE (IC) OF THE MINISTRY OF COMMUNICATIONS &
MINISTER OF STATE IN THE MINISTRY OF RAILWAYS
(SHRI MANOJ SINHA)
(a) Service Area wise mobile telephone connections in the country during the last two years and the current year (as on 31.01.2018) are given at Annexure.
(b) USOF is implementing projects to provide mobile connectivity in remote, rural and uncovered areas. A project to provide mobile service in LWE (Left Wing Extremism) affected areas of Jharkhand is being implemented. Under Phase-I of this project 816 towers have been set up and are radiating. Under Phase-II a proposal to provide mobile services at 1054 additional locations, identified by Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA), has been taken up for consideration.
In addition, under the flagship BharatNet programme, the Government plans to create network infrastructure for providing Broadband connectivity to all Gram Panchayats (GPs) (approx. 2,50,000) in the country, including Jharkhand. As on 31-03-2018, a total of 1536 GPs out of a total of 4423 GPs have been made service ready in Jharkhand.
(c) & (d) The tariff for mobile telephony services is under forbearance except for National roaming and Rural Fixed Line services. The service providers have the flexibility to decide various tariff components for different service areas of their operation. Tariffs are offered by service providers taking into account several factors including input costs, level of competition and other commercial considerations. TSPs have flexibility to design their products to suit consumer demand. TSPs have plans on offer which provide subscribers a wide choice of telecom products and services as per their need. The average outgo for voice and data services in India have shown continuous downward trend, particularly in the recent past. The details are shown in the table below.
Average outgo for voice and data
<pre>
Quarter ending Average outgo per minute for voice (Rs.) Average outgo per GB data (Rs.)
June 2016 0.49 205
September 2016 0.48 184
December 2016 0.44 164
March 2017 0.31 19
June 2017 0.27 17
September 2017 0.23 21
December 2017 0.19 19
</pre>
Source: TRAI