(a) whether the Government has any proposal to bring the rural telephone density at
par with that prevailing in cities;
(b) if so, the details thereof alongwith the tele-density of urban and rural areas,
Stae-wise; and
(c) the steps taken/being taken by the Government to bridge the gap between urban and
rural tele-density in the country?
THE MINISTER OF STATE IN THE MINISTRY OF COMMUNICATIONS AND
INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY (SHRI SACHIN PILOT)
(a) & (b) Eleventh Five Year Plan (2007-12), inter-alia, provides for achieving a target
of 200 million rural connections by 2012 and a rural tele-density of 25% in the country.
Government has also envisaged to attain a rural tele-density of 40% by 2014.
As on 30.06.2010, about 219.18 million rural connections have been provided and a rural
tele-density of 26.47% has been achieved. A statement indicating State-wise status of rural
and urban tele-density is given in the Annexure.
(c) The steps taken / being taken by the Government to bridge the gap between urban and
rural tele-density in the country are given below:-
(i) Subsidy support from Universal Service Obligation Fund (USOF) for setting up of 7387
shareable towers in 500 districts spread over 27 States for provision of mobile services
in the specified rural and remote areas including the hilly areas of the country, where
there was no existing fixed wireless or mobile coverage. As on 30.06.2010, 7183 towers
have already been provided under this scheme.
(ii) Subsidy support from USOF for installation of Individual Rural Direct Exchange
(RDELs) in 1685 Short Distance Charging Areas (SDCAs) in the country, where cost of providing
telephones is more than the revenue earned. The cut off date for installation of these RDELs
expired on 31.03.2010. As on 31.03.2010, 79.3 lakh RDELs have been provided under this scheme.
Besides, Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) is also taking following steps to increase the
tele-density in rural areas:-
(i) For financial year 2010-11 BSNL plan to give 20 million GSM connections, 7.5 million
Broadband connections in which significant percentage will be provisioned in rural areas.
(ii) Presently 3,80,950 villages are covered with GSM service. BSNL has planned to cover
the villages having population more than 1000 (as per census 2001) progressively in next three
years subject to techno commercial viability.
(iii) BSNL has deployed Wireless in Local Loop (WLL) network in rural areas to meet the
demand of scattered and far-flung rural areas where connection of telephone is not
techno-commercially feasible on landline.