NEW DELHI: At a time when the government is banking on mobile connectivity to accomplish its Digital India plan, there are over 25,000 villages in the country where mobile connectivity is still a distant dream.
In a written reply to a question asked by BJP MP Ganesh Singh, who represents Satna parliamentary constituency in Lok Sabha, Union Telecom Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said that out of 5,97,618 inhabited villages (as per census 2011) in the country, 25,067 villages are still without mobile connectivity.
"Mobile connectivity is extended by the government and the Telecom Service Providers (TSPs) in a phased manner in the uncovered villages of the country. Presently, there are 23,54,667 base transceiver stations (2G/3G/4G) TSPs in the country," he told Lok Sabha.
"As per the data provided by TSPs and field units of the Department of Telecommunications, out of 5,97,618 inhabited villages (as per census 2011) in the country, 5,72,551 villages are covered with mobile coverage and 25,067 villages are identified as mobile uncovered villages as on December 31,.2020," Vaishnaw said.
The Union Minister further stated that for providing mobile services in uncovered villages of the country, the government, with funding from Universal Service Obligation Fund (USOF), has approved Comprehensive Telecom Development Plan for North Eastern Region (NER), Left Wing Extremism (LWE) affected area schemes, aspirational districts schemes, comprehensive telecom development plan for Islands, etc.
"BharatNet project is implemented in a phased manner to provide broadband connectivity to all Gram Panchayats (GPs) in the country. The scope of BharatNet has been recently extended up to all inhabited villages beyond GPs in the country with the timeline as 2025," the minister said, adding that the infrastructure created under BharatNet project would be utilised by service providers for provisioning of broadband/internet services.