Lok Sabha Question No. 3647 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2016-12-07
Subject: Telephone and Broadband in Rural Areas
Ministry: COMMUNICATIONS
Asked by: SHIVAJI ADHALRAO PATIL, Shrirang Appa Barne, JUGAL KISHORE SHARMA, SHRIKANT EKNATH SHINDE

## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF COMMUNICATIONS DEPARTMENT OF TELECOMMUNICATIONS

## LOK SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION NO.3647 TO BE ANSWERED ON 7 TH   DECEMER, 2016

## TELEPHONE AND BROADBAND IN RURAL AREAS

3647.  SHRI ADHALRAO PATIL SHIVAJIRAO: SHRI SHRIRANG APPA BARNE: SHRI JUGAL KISHORE: DR. SHRIKANT EKNATH SHINDE:

Will the Minister of COMMUNICATIONS be pleased to state:

- (a) whether BSNL is the sole service provider offering broadband and landline and mobile  services  in  some  areas  in  the  country  where  private  players  are  yet  to penetrate;
- (b) if so, the details of such areas, State-wise;
- (c) whether at a time when the Central Government is giving a major push to the Digital India programme, many villages are yet to be connected with telecom facilities by BSNL;
- (d) if so, the details thereof; and
- (e) the  steps  taken  by  the  Government  to  ensure  that  BSNL  provide  broadband and  mobile/landline  services  in  left  out  area  and  also  increase  the  Internet  speed where the company is already providing Internet broadband services?

## ANSWER

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

(a) & (b) State-wise details of villages covered by Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) with mobile facility along  with rural  BTS (Base Transceiver Station) working, villages covered with VPT (Village Panchayat Telephone) facility and villages covered with  broadband  service  are  given  at Annexure-I,  Annexure-II and Annexure-III respectively.  The details of areas where BSNL is the sole provider offering broadband and landline and mobile services are not maintained by BSNL/Government.

- (c) to (e) In order to provide telecom facilities to uncovered villages following initiatives have been taken by Government through BSNL in rural areas:
- i. BSNL  is  providing  wireline  broadband  services  covering  651  out  of  656 District  Headquarters (DHQ), 6137 out of 6454 Block Headquarters (BHQ) and more than 173000 villages have been covered with broadband facility.

- ii. Government of India has planned to provide broadband facility to all Gram Panchayats (GPs) in phased manner.  Under first phase of project, 1 lakh GPs are to be connected by laying underground Optical Fibre Cable (OFC) by March, 2017.  As on 20.11.2016, OFC has been laid to 63,631 GPs with a total length of 1,45,693 km.  Out of these, 14,009 GPs have been provided with broadband connectivity.  In second phase, connectivity will be provided to remaining 1.5 lakh GPs by September, 2018.
- iii. 2186  mobile  towers  have  been  set  up  in  LWE  (Left  Wing  Extremism) affected states.
- iv. Under Comprehensive Telecom Development Plan for North-Eastern Region (NER) with an estimated cost of Rs.5336.18 crores which is funded from  Universal  Service  Obligation  Fund  (USOF).    6673  mobile  towers  are planned to provide mobile coverage to 8621 identified uncovered villages. 321 mobile towers along National Highways in NER  are also planned.
- v. 7317 mobile towers have been installed with financial support from USOF under Shared Mobile Infrastructure Scheme  for the villages having population of 2000 or more and not having mobile coverage.
- vi. 6,56,345  broadband  connections  have  been  provided  and  15,671  kiosks have  been  set  up  in  rural  and  remote  areas  under  agreement  between USOF with BSNL for Rural Wireline Broadband Scheme towards providing broadband connection by using existing rural exchanges infrastructure and copper wire-line network.
- vii. BSNL has undertaken following steps to strengthen broadband network and increase internet speed:
- 1)  Augmentation of Broadband core network links.
- 2)  Peering with many content providers.
- 3)  Installation of Catching Server in BSNL Network
- 4)  Augmentation of Broadband Network traffic carrying capacity by upgradation of various equipments involved in delivering Internet Services.

Contd…3/-

State/Circle wise details of Village covered with Mobile services (as on 30.9.2016)

| Sl No.   | Name of circle/ Metro Distt.   | Total Villages in country   | Total no of Villages covered   | Total Rural 2G BTS working   |
|----------|--------------------------------|-----------------------------|--------------------------------|------------------------------|
| 1        | Andaman & Nicobar              | 501                         | 323                            | 101                          |
| 2        | Andhra Pradesh                 | 27800                       | 22633                          | 4774                         |
| 3        | Assam                          | 26395                       | 20291                          | 848                          |
| 4        | Bihar                          | 44874                       | 28045                          | 2224                         |
| 5        | Chennai                        | 1544                        | 1515                           | 363                          |
| 6        | Chhattisgarh                   | 19567                       | 12306                          | 1233                         |
| 7        | Gujarat                        | 18309                       | 13238                          | 2494                         |
| 8        | Haryana                        | 6,841                       | 4,475                          | 1,606                        |
| 9        | Himachal Pradesh               | 19786                       | 16930                          | 947                          |
| 10       | Jammu & Kashmir                | 6652                        | 5289                           | 726                          |
| 11       | Jharkhand                      | 29354                       | 22021                          | 1271                         |
| 12       | Karnataka                      | 29340                       | 22022                          | 3233                         |
| 13       | Kerala                         | 1489                        | 1489                           | 3772                         |
| 14       | Kolkata                        | 437                         | 437                            | 0                            |
| 15       | Madhya Pradesh                 | 51929                       | 30470                          | 2181                         |
| 16       | Maharashtra                    | 44010                       | 20972                          | 4574                         |
| 17       | North East I                   | 8646                        | 2799                           | 494                          |
| 18       | North East II                  | 9514                        | 5205                           | 497                          |
| 19       | Odisha                         | 51313                       | 27872                          | 2163                         |
| 20       | Punjab                         | 12313                       | 11321                          | 2090                         |
| 21       | Rajasthan                      | 41353                       | 26343                          | 2655                         |
| 22       | Tamil Nadu                     | 13595                       | 12162                          | 2763                         |
| 23       | Uttar Pradesh (East)           | 80573                       | 71766                          | 3849                         |
| 24       | Uttar Pradesh (West)           | 23781                       | 14255                          | 1662                         |
| 25       | Uttarakhand                    | 16853                       | 13485                          | 711                          |
| 26       | West Bengal                    | 38405                       | 25516                          | 1829                         |
| Total    | Total                          | 6,25,174                    | 4,33,180                       | 49,060                       |

Contd…4/-

State/Circle wise details of villages covered/yet to be covered with VPT facility (as on 30.09.2016)

| S. No.   | Name of Circle       |   No. of villages assigned for VPT facility as per census 2001 |   No. of villages yet to be covered with VPT facility |
|----------|----------------------|----------------------------------------------------------------|-------------------------------------------------------|
| 1        | Andaman & Nicobar    |                                                            501 |                                                   149 |
| 2        | Andhra Pradesh       |                                                          26613 |                                                  1491 |
| 3        | Assam                |                                                          25124 |                                                   432 |
| 4        | Bihar                |                                                          39032 |                                                    91 |
| 5        | Chhattisgarh         |                                                          19744 |                                                  1416 |
| 6        | Gujarat              |                                                          18159 |                                                    58 |
| 7        | Haryana              |                                                           6764 |                                                    86 |
| 8        | Himachal Pradesh     |                                                          17495 |                                                    86 |
| 9        | Jammu & Kashmir      |                                                           6417 |                                                    30 |
| 10       | Jharkhand            |                                                          29354 |                                                   514 |
| 11       | Karnataka            |                                                          27481 |                                                    30 |
| 12       | Kerala               |                                                           1372 |                                                     0 |
| 13       | Madhya Pradesh       |                                                          52117 |                                                   131 |
| 14       | Maharashtra          |                                                          41442 |                                                   726 |
| 15       | North East I         |                                                           7347 |                                                   328 |
| 16       | North East II        |                                                           7456 |                                                  1209 |
| 17       | Odisha               |                                                          47529 |                                                  2184 |
| 18       | Punjab               |                                                          12301 |                                                   236 |
| 19       | Rajasthan            |                                                          39753 |                                                    83 |
| 20       | Tamil Nadu           |                                                          15492 |                                                     0 |
| 21       | Uttar Pradesh (East) |                                                          74161 |                                                    16 |
| 22       | Uttar Pradesh (West) |                                                          23781 |                                                    74 |
| 23       | Uttarakhand          |                                                          15761 |                                                   135 |
| 24       | West Bengal          |                                                          38405 |                                                   834 |
| Total    | Total                |                                                         593601 |                                                 10339 |

Contd…5/-

## Annexure III

## Status of Broadband Service coverage in Telecom Circles as on 31-10-2016

| S. No.   | Circle               | District HQ   | District HQ   | Block HQ   | Block HQ   | Villages   | Villages   |
|----------|----------------------|---------------|---------------|------------|------------|------------|------------|
| S. No.   | Circle               | Total         | Covered       | Total      | Covered    | Total      | Covered    |
| 1        | Andaman & Nicobar    | 3             | 3             | 7          | 5          | 501        | 120        |
| 2        | Andhra Pradesh       | 23            | 23            | 1126       | 1126       | 27800      | 13125      |
| 3        | Assam                | 27            | 26            | 219        | 179        | 26395      | 6995       |
| 4        | Bihar                | 38            | 38            | 534        | 454        | 44874      | 8043       |
| 5        | Chhattisgarh         | 27            | 27            | 146        | 141        | 19567      | 4315       |
| 6        | Chennai              | 3             | 3             | 27         | 27         | 1544       | 1544       |
| 7        | Gujarat              | 33            | 33            | 161        | 161        | 18309      | 7970       |
| 8        | Haryana              | 21            | 21            | 119        | 119        | 6841       | 4630       |
| 9        | Himachal Pradesh     | 12            | 12            | 78         | 77         | 19786      | 8163       |
| 10       | Jammu & Kashmir      | 22            | 22            | 143        | 92         | 6652       | 2533       |
| 11       | Jharkhand            | 24            | 24            | 211        | 211        | 29354      | 2736       |
| 12       | Karnataka            | 30            | 30            | 176        | 176        | 29340      | 11235      |
| 13       | Kerala               | 14            | 14            | 152        | 152        | 1489       | 1367       |
| 14       | Kolkatta             | 5             | 5             | 19         | 19         | 437        | 0          |
| 15       | Madhya Pradesh       | 51            | 51            | 313        | 313        | 51929      | 6142       |
| 16       | Maharashtra          | 36            | 36            | 362        | 362        | 44010      | 11290      |
| 17       | North East-I         | 19            | 19            | 112        | 75         | 8646       | 535        |
| 18       | North East-II        | 40            | 36            | 181        | 80         | 9514       | 1889       |
| 19       | Odisha               | 30            | 30            | 314        | 314        | 51313      | 10093      |
| 20       | Punjab               | 24            | 24            | 138        | 138        | 12313      | 10021      |
| 21       | Rajasthan            | 33            | 33            | 247        | 247        | 41353      | 5672       |
| 22       | Tamil Nadu           | 31            | 31            | 362        | 362        | 13595      | 9380       |
| 23       | Uttar Pradesh (East) | 48            | 48            | 582        | 582        | 80573      | 25763      |
| 24       | Uttar Pradesh (West) | 27            | 27            | 239        | 239        | 23781      | 3753       |
| 25       | Uttarakhand          | 13            | 13            | 95         | 95         | 16853      | 2923       |
| 26       | West Bengal          | 22            | 22            | 391        | 391        | 38405      | 12831      |
|          | Total %age of        | 656           | 651           | 6454       | 6137       | 625174     | 173068     |
|          | coverage             |               | 99.24%        |            | 95.09%     |            | 27.68%     |

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