(a) whether telecom and mobile service has not been made available so far in many inhabited villages in the country;
(b) if so, the details thereof along with the reasons therefor;
(c) the extent to which the said problems have been addressed with the help of modern technology and equipments;
(d) the outcomes thereof; and
(e) the other concrete steps taken by the Government in this regard?
THE MINISTER OF STATE (IC) OF THE MINISTRY OF COMMUNICATIONS &
MINISTER OF STATE IN THE MINISTRY OF RAILWAYS
(SHRI MANOJ SINHA)
(a) to (e) According to the data collected from the telecom service providers in 2018, it is estimated that there are 43088 villages (as per the Census 2011) in the country which are not covered by mobile services. The State/ Union Territories-wise list of uncovered villages is Annexed. The reasons for not having mobile services in these villages include, inter-alia, remote and tough terrain, areas diversely located with scattered population, law and order issues and commercially non-viable operations. However, mobile coverage in the uncovered villages is being provided in a phased manner. Following projects are being implemented for providing/facilitating telecom services in inhabited villages:
(1) Under Left Wing Extremism affected areas Phase-II project, Government has approved to install 4072 mobile towers for providing mobile connectivity.
(2) A Comprehensive Telecom Development Plan for mobile connectivity in the North Eastern Region to install 6673 mobile towers for 8621 identified uncovered villages, 321 mobile towers for National Highways and strengthening of transmission network.
(3) Andaman & Nicobar Islands:
(i) Submarine Optical Fibre Cable (OFC) connectivity between Chennai and Andaman & Nicobar Islands
(ii) Satellite Bandwidth Augmentation from 260 Mbps to 2 Gbps
(iii) Augmentation of Intra Island OFC network
(iv) Mobile connectivity to cover uncovered villages and seamless coverage on National Highway (NH 223)
(4) Lakshadweep:
(i) Augmentation of Satellite bandwidth from 102 Mbps to 1.71 Gbps
(ii) Augmentation of 2G mobile coverage with EDGE Technology
(5) BharatNet project is being implemented in a phased manner to provide broadband connectivity in all the Gram Panchayats (approx 2.5 lakh) in the country. As on 27.01.2019, by laying 3,10,097 Km OFC, a total of 1,23,489 Gram Panchayats (GPs) have been connected, of which 1,16,876 Gram Panchayats are service ready.
As part of BharatNet project, the Last Mile connectivity, through Wi-Fi or any other suitable broadband technology to access broadband/ internet services is being provided at all the GPs in the country. On an average, 5 Wi-Fi Access Points (APs) are being provided at each GP; of these, 3 APs will be connected to Government Institutions such as Police Stations, Schools, Hospitals, and Post Offices, while 2 APs will be available for public use. So far, Wi-Fi hotspots have been installed at 39,379 GPs and of these, services are being provided in 12,528 GPs.