(a) whether the Government has any data with regard to percentage of communication network in States including Kerala;
(b) if so, the details thereof, State/UT-wise; and
(c) the steps being taken by the Ministry to increase communication network in remotest areas including Kerala?
THE MINISTER OF STATE (IC) OF THE MINISTRY OF COMMUNICATIONS &
MINISTER OF STATE IN THE MINISTRY OF RAILWAYS
(SHRI MANOJ SINHA)
(a) & (b) A communication network basically includes telephone penetration (wireless and wireline) in rural and urban areas of the country. The Service Area wise number of connections, teledensity (percentage of population covered) and the percentage share of Service Area in total connections as on 31st December, 2016 are given at the Annexure.
(c) Various Schemes being implemented/planned with financial support from Universal Service Obligation Fund (USOF) to increase the spread of communication network in inaccessible rural and remote areas in the country including Kerala, are as under :
(i) BharatNet is planned to create network infrastructure for providing Broadband connectivity to all Gram Panchayats (GPs) (approx. 2,50,000) in the country. The project is being implemented in a phased manner, with phase-I to connect 1,00,000 GPs being implemented currently. Remaining GPs are targeted to be covered in phase-II, to be completed by December, 2018.
(ii) 2199 mobile towers are being set up in Left Wing Extremism (LWE) affected States with a total estimated cost of Rs.3567.58 crore. As on date, 2186 sites are radiating.
(iii) On 10.09.2014, the Government approved a proposal to implement a Comprehensive Telecom Development Plan for the North-Eastern Region (NER). The Project envisages to provide mobile coverage to 8621 identified uncovered villages by installation of about 6673 mobile towers, installation of 321 mobile tower sites along National Highways and strengthening of transmission network in the NER. The estimated cost of implementation is Rs. 5336.18 crore, to be funded from Universal Service Obligation Fund (USOF).
(iv) USOF schemes for Creation of Optical Fiber Cable (OFC) Infrastructure in North-East are being implemented to provide sufficient back-haul capacity to integrate the voice and data traffic from the access network in the rural areas to their core network and OFC network augmentation between the Block HQ and Districts HQ.
(v) On 14.12.2016, the Government approved the proposal for providing mobile services in 172 uncovered villages and entire 129 Km of National Highway (NH 223) in Andaman & Nicobar Islands. The estimated cost of implementation is Rs. 262.91 Crore.
(vi) On 14.12.2016, the Government approved the proposal for installation of 10 new BTSs to improve the Quality of Service (QoS) in Lakshadweep Islands. The estimated cost of project is Rs. 10.1 Crore and to be funded by USOF.
(vii) On 21.09.2016, the Government approved a proposal for providing Optical Fiber Cable (OFC) connectivity from mainland India (Chennai) to Andaman & Nicobar Islands. The estimated cost for CAPEX is Rs. 880.03 Crore and to be funded by USOF. The OPEX is Rs. 44.47 Crore per annum and to be funded by Andaman & Nicobar Islands and UT Administration/Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA).
ANNEXURE
Service area-wise connections ( Rural, Urban, Total, Wireline and Wireless) Tele-density in % age and % age share of Service area in total telephone connections at the end of December 2016
<pre>
Sr. No. Service area No. of connections ( in million) Tele-density
(in %age)
Share in total connection
(in %age)
Rural Urban Total connections Wireline Wireless
1 Andhra Pradesh 34.62 48.67 83.29 1.63 81.66 93.67 7.23%
2 Assam 12.88 8.22 21.10 0.16 20.94 64.43 1.83%
3 Bihar 46.20 36.42 82.63 0.32 82.31 59.50 7.17%
4 Gujarat 25.79 43.94 69.73 1.35 68.38 108.63 6.05%
5 Haryana 10.88 13.41 24.29 0.35 23.94 87.37 2.11%
6 Himachal Pradesh 6.29 3.78 10.07 0.15 9.91 140.94 0.87%
7 Jammu & Kashmir 5.92 5.48 11.41 0.13 11.27 91.09 0.99%
8 Karnataka 21.09 48.26 69.36 2.22 67.13 110.40 6.02%
9 Kerala 17.30 22.73 40.02 2.12 37.91 111.42 3.47%
10 Madhya Pradesh 31.10 36.45 67.55 1.04 66.51 64.38 5.86%
11 Maharashtra 41.03 51.62 92.65 1.88 90.77 92.98 8.04%
12 North East 6.17 6.34 12.50 0.12 12.38 88.88 1.09%
13 Odisha 18.55 14.53 33.08 0.29 32.79 77.39 2.87%
14 Punjab 12.75 24.65 37.40 1.02 36.38 119.97 3.25%
15 Rajasthan 32.56 33.10 65.67 0.75 64.91 89.03 5.70%
16 Tamil Nadu 24.76 64.31 89.08 2.54 86.54 124.76 7.73%
17 Uttar Pradesh (East) 50.71 51.40 102.10 0.50 101.61 71.54 8.86%
18 Uttar Pradesh (West) 27.93 35.68 63.61 0.40 63.21 5.52%
19 West Bengal 37.37 18.56 55.93 0.33 55.59 70.40 4.85%
20 Kolkata 1.94 27.06 29.01 0.86 28.14 181.53 2.52%
21 Delhi 2.33 51.77 54.09 3.21 50.88 248.19 4.69%
22 Mumbai 1.05 36.61 37.66 3.03 34.63 159.29 3.27%
All- India 469.23 682.98 1152.21 24.40 1127.81 89.94 100.00%
</pre>
Source: DoT compiled data
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