Question : Telecom Services in Rural and Backward Areas

(a) whether many villages/rural/ backward areas of the country have not been provided with telecommunication facilities including internet services and other such areas have been experiencing slow internet speed and if so, the details thereof, district-wise and State/UT-wise and the reasons therefor;

(b) the time by which the said services are likely to be made available across entire rural and backward areas of the country along with the steps taken by the Government to increase the speed of internet in villages;

(c) whether the private Telecom Service Providers (TSPs) are not interested in providing telecom facilities to aforementioned areas in view of its perceived non-lucrativeness and if so, the steps taken by the Government in this regard; and

(d) the details of the telecom services provided to such areas during each of the last three years and the current year?

THE MINISTER OF STATE (IC) OF THE MINISTRY OF COMMUNICATIONS &
MINISTER OF STATE IN THE MINISTRY OF RAILWAYS
(SHRI MANOJ SINHA)

(a) According to data collected from Telecom Service Providers (TSPs) in 2014, it is estimated that there are about 52,685 villages out of total 5,98,004 villages i.e. 8.81% in the country that do not have mobile coverage. (State-wise details of uncovered villages are at Annexure). This is being verified through the States.

(b) & (c) Private Telecom Service Providers (TSPs) make their investment decisions based on techno commercial consideration. However, the Government provides financial assistance from Universal Service Obligation (USO) Fund in order to provide telecommunication facilities in rural and remote areas of the country. Following schemes/programmes are being implemented by the Government for provision of telecom services in unviable rural and remote areas of the country:
(i) Comprehensive Telecom Development Plan for the North-Eastern Region (NER): On 10.09.2014, the Government approved a proposal to implement a Comprehensive Telecom Development Plan for the North-Eastern Region (NER) to provide mobile coverage to 8621 identified uncovered villages and along National Highways with an estimated cost of Rs. 5336.18 crore.
(ii) Mobile Communication Services in Left Wing Extremism (LWE) affected areas: After successful implementation of LWE Phase-I mobile tower project, Department has received an additional requirement from Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) for provisioning of 4,072 mobile towers in LWE affected areas.
(iii) Comprehensive Telecom Development Plan for Andaman & Nicobar Islands and Lakshadweep Islands: Comprehensive Telecom Development Plan to provide mobile coverage in uncovered villages along National Highways and to augment the Satellite Bandwidth for Andaman & Nicobar Islands and Lakshadweep with a total estimated cost of Rs 487.35 Crore is being implemented.
(iv) BharatNet: BharatNet is being implemented in a phased manner for providing broadband connectivity to all Gram Panchayats (approx. 2,50,000) in the country.

(d) Government has installed 2,336 mobile towers in 10 Left Wing Extremism (LWE) affected States and 1,05,831 Gram Panchayats (GPs) have been connected by Optical Fiber in last three and half years