Question : Internet and Broadband Users

(a) whether the Government has fixed any annual target to increase the number of internet and broadband users across the country;

(b) if so, the details thereof and if not, the reasons therefor;

(c) the access rate of internet separately in rural and urban areas during the last three years;

(d) the action taken/worked out by the Government to reduce this gap in urban and rural areas; and

(e) whether internet/broadband services particularly in rural and various border areas across the country are not satisfactory and if so, the reaction of the Government thereto?

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

(a) &(b) Government has not fixed any specific annual targets for the internet and broadband services in the country. However the National Digital Communications Policy 2018, unveiled by the Government recently, has the following goals for 2022 for increasing the internet and broadband penetration in the country:

• Provide universal broadband connectivity at 50Mbps to every citizen
• Provide 1 Gbps connectivity to all Gram Panchayats of India by 2020 and 10 Gbps by 2022.
• Enable 100 Mbps broadband on demand to all key development institutions
• Enable fixed line broadband access to 50% of the households
• Enable deployment of public wi-fi hotspots, to reach 5 million by 2020 and 10 million by 2022
• Ensure connectivity to all uncovered areas.


(c) The details of internet access in rural and urban areas during the last three years and the current year is given below:

<pre>
Urban Rural
Year Total Internet connections (in million)** Population* in ''000'' Number of internet connections per 100 population Total Internet connections
(million)** Population* in ''000'' Number of internet connections per 100 population
2015-16 230.71 396045 58.25 111.95 872916 12.82
2016-17 285.68 403514 70.79 136.52 880086 15.51
2017-18 348.12 410996 84.70 145.82 887045 16.44
2018-19 (upto Sept 2018) 365.94 418475 87.44 194.07 893765 21.71
</pre>
* Population projected by Registrar General of India (RGI)
** Source: Internet connection by TRAI

(d) With the aim of boosting broadband infrastructure in the rural areas and reducing the digital divide, the Government is implementing the flagship BharatNet project in a phased manner for providing Broadband connectivity to all the 2,50,000 Gram Panchayats (GPs) in the country. Phase I of BharatNet for connecting 1 lakh GPs has been completed in December 2017. Phase II of the project is under implementation. As on date a total of 1,21,859 Gram Panchayats have been connected on Optical Fibre Cable(OFC) by laying 3,02,621 Km of OFC. Of this, 1,16,492 GPs are now service ready.

Public Wi-Fi Access

The BharatNet project also envisages access to broadband service through Wi-Fi in all the GPs in the country for ensuring last mile connectivity. At each GP, on an average, five Access Points (APs) are envisaged to be provided, of which three APs are for Government institutions and two APs for public places. In addition to the wi-fi hotspots provisioned in BharatNet, the Government proposes to setup 25,000 Public Wi-Fi hotspots infrastructure at BSNL’s Telephone Exchanges in rural areas.

(e) Information on performance in rural & various borders areas is not maintained separately. However, performance of service providers against the Quality of Service standards for Broadband & Wireless services laid down by the TRAI is monitored through Quarterly Performance Monitoring Reports (PMR) submitted by service providers for the service area as a whole.

As per PMR for the quarter ending September 2018, for Broadband Services, all the service providers are meeting the benchmarks for all the parameters except the service providers as mentioned in Annexure.

As regards wireless data services, all the service providers are complying with the benchmark for various Quality of Service parameters.