Question : Poor Internet Services in Villages

(a) whether the Ministry is aware that despite its campaign of Digital India several villages in the country do not possess internet connectivity and the ones which possess have extremely poor internet speeds and if so, the details thereof and the reasons therefor;

(b) the number of villages which are not connected with internet in the country especially in West Bengal, State-wise and district-wise;

(c) the expected time limit by which each and every village in the country is expected to get high speed internet connectivity; and

(d) the measures being taken to improve the poor internet speed provided to the villages?

THE MINISTER OF STATE (IC) OF THE MINISTRY OF COMMUNICATIONS &
MINISTER OF STATE IN THE MINISTRY OF RAILWAYS
(SHRI MANOJ SINHA)

(a) to (d): National Optical Fibre Network (NOFN) project, renamed as BharatNet, which is one of the pillars of Digital India Programme, is planned to establish a network infrastructure by connecting all Gram Panchayats (approx. 2.5 lakh) in the country through Optical Fibre Cable (OFC) and by using an optimal mix of underground fibre, fibre over power lines, radio and satellite media, for providing broadband connectivity by all categories of service providers on non-discriminatory basis.

The project is planned to be implemented in three phases. Under first phase of the project, 1 lakh Gram Panchayats (GPs) are to be connected by laying underground OFC by November 2017. Under second phase, connectivity will be provided to remaining 1.5 lakh GPs in the country using an optimal mix of underground fibre, fibre over power lines, radio and satellite media, by March, 2019. A state- of- the-art future-proof network, including fibre between districts and blocks and with for 5G services and Internet of Things era with underground OFC in ring architecture, is planned to be completed by 2023. The State-wise status of BharatNet, as on 09.07.2017, is given at Annexure-I.

State-wise & District-wise details of villages in the country without internet connectivity are not available. Telecom Service Area-wise rural subscriber base of Internet as on March, 2017 as submitted by service providers to Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) is, however, given at Annexure-II.