Question : Growth and Expansion of Mobile and Internet

(a) the number of internet and mobile subscribers in the country and the percentage increase in the subscribers of both the services as on date as compared to last three years;

(b) whether the Government has made any assessment on the need of mobile and internet facilities in the country;

(c) if so, the details thereof along with the estimated per year addition of the subscribers of both services;

(d) whether Centre for Development of Telmatic (C-DoT) has unveiled new broadband products, one a long distance and solar-powered Wi-Fi system and another green power source to make broadband structure self-sustainable;

(e) if so, the details thereof and the manner in which these products likely to be helpful in expansion of internet penetration; and

(f) the other steps taken by the Government to provide internet facility to every citizen at affordable rates?

THE MINISTER OF COMMUNICATIONS AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY
(SHRI RAVI SHANKAR PRASAD)

(a) The number of internet and mobile subscribers in the country and percentage increase in the subscribers of both the services during the last three years are enclosed in Annexure.

(b) & (c) As per the National Telecom Policy-2012, 175 million broadband connections will be provided and rural teledensity will be increased to 70 by 2017.

(d) & (e) Yes, CDoT has developed these broadband products. The details are as under:
Wi-Fi systems
Long Distance Wi-Fi and Solar power Wi-Fi address the connectivity problem of rural areas, hilly terrain, highways, dense vegetation, tunnels etc. They are also suited for greenfield projects like smart cities, areas where there is little / no grid supply, emergency situations, Disaster Management Networks etc.

Green Power Source
C-DOT developed a light weight Green Power Source to make the solution self-sustainable with higher solar efficiency.

Using these technology solution, reach of Bharat Net (Bharat Broadband Network) can be increased beyond Panchayats to the remotest part of country.

(f) National Optical Fibre Network (NOFN) project was planned to connect all Gram Panchayats (approx. 2.5 lakh) in the country through Optical Fibre Cable (OFC) by bridging the connectivity gap between Gram Panchayats (GPs) and Blocks for providing broadband connectivity. Under this project, at least 100Mbps bandwidth was to be provided in all the estimated 2,50,000 GPs for utilization by all categories of service providers on non-discriminatory basis. As on 19.07.2015, OFC laying in 22,946 Gram Panchayats are completed.



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ANNEXURE
No. of internet subscribers in the country and their percentage increase in the last three years.

(Subscriber base in millions)
S.No. Name of item 31.03.2012 31.03.2013 31.03.2014 31.03.2015
1 No. of Internet subscribers 22.86
(exclude Internet access through wireless phones) 164.81 251.59 302.35
2 % Increase - - 52.65% 20.18%

No. of mobile subscribers in the country and their percentage increase in the last three years till 31.05.2015.

(Subscriber base in millions)
S.No. Name of item 31.03.2012 31.03.2013 31.03.2014 31.03.2015 31.05.2015
1 No. of Mobile subscribers 919.17 867.81 904.52 969.54 975.74
2 % Increase - -5.59% 4.23% 7.19% 0.64%