(a) whether the Government has any data regarding the percentage of coverage of communication network in Uttar Pradesh and Jharkhand;
(b) if so, the details thereof, district-wise in respective States; and
(c) the steps taken/being taken by the Government to increase the communication network coverage in remote/forest regions of the said States?
THE MINISTER OF STATE (IC) OF THE MINISTRY OF COMMUNICATIONS &
MINISTER OF STATE IN THE MINISTRY OF RAILWAYS
(SHRI MANOJ SINHA)
(a) to (c) A statement is laid on the Table of the House.
STATEMENT TO BE LAID ON THE TABLE OF LOK SABHA IN RESPECT OF PARTS (a) TO (c) OF LOK SABHA STARRED QUESTION NO. *203 FOR 26TH DECEMBER, 2018 ON “COMMUNICATION NETWORK COVERAGE”.
(a) & (b) Communication network basically includes communication infrastructure, coverage, and telephone and internet penetration. As licenses to the operators are given service area wise, therefore the data is also maintained in the Department service area wise and not district wise. The details regarding Towers, Base Transceiver Station (BTS), and telephone and internet connections in the service areas of Uttar Pradesh (East), Uttar Pradesh (West) and Bihar (which includes Jharkhand service area) are given as under:
<pre>
Service Area No. of Towers No. of BTS Total telephone connections (in millions, as on October 2018)
Teledensity (in %) Internet connections(in millions as on September 2018)
Uttar Pradesh (East) 30693 130631 107.09
70.10* 38.18
Uttar Pradesh (West) 26358 105560 59.75 27.78
Bihar (including Jharkhand) 36147 107305 87.70
61.90 32.73
All India 506746 2007568 1192.13
91.18 560.01
</pre>
* Teledensity calculated for the State as a whole as the population for UP (East) and UP (West) is not available separately.
Source: TRAI and DoT
(c) The Department is implementing projects to provide mobile connectivity in remote and rural uncovered areas. A project to provide mobile service in LWE (Left Wing Extremism) affected areas including Jharkhand is being implemented. Under Phase-I, out of 2355 tower locations identified by the Ministry of Home Affairs, 2341 towers have been commissioned which includes 78 towers in Uttar Pradesh and 816 towers in Jharkhand. The Government has decided to install 179 towers in UP and 1054 in Jharkhand under Phase-II of the project.