Lok Sabha Question No. 504 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2020-02-05
Subject: Mobile Network Coverage
Ministry: COMMUNICATIONS
Asked by: Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore

## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF COMMUNICATIONS DEPARTMENT OF TELECOMMUNICATIONS

## LOK  SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 504 TO BE ANSWERED ON 5 TH  FEBRUARY, 2020

## MOBILE NETWORK COVERAGE

## 504. COL. RAJYAVARDHAN RATHORE:

Will the Minister of COMMUNICATIONS be pleased to state:

- (a) the  percentage  share  in  mobile  network  coverage  of  BSNL  and  private  telecom  service  providers respectively in the country, State/UT-wise;
- (b) whether  gaps/dark  spots  in  network  coverage  exist  in  rural  areas  and  if  so,  the  details  thereof  and reasons therefor along with the steps taken by the Government in this regard;
- (c) the proposed timeline decided by the Government by which all rural areas will achieve 100 per cent network coverage and access;
- (d) whether 4G is available in all regions in the country and if so, the details thereof and if not, the reasons therefor;
- (e) the  proposed  timeline  decided  by  the  Government  for  achieving  uniform  4G  coverage  across  the country; and
- (f) the network speed in urban and rural areas separately, State/UT-wise along with the reasons for nonuniformity, if any, in network speed throughout the country?

## ANSWER

## MINISTER OF STATE FOR COMMUNICATIONS, HUMAN RESOURCE DEVELOPMENT AND ELECTRONICS & INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY (SHRI SANJAY DHOTRE)

- (a) The percentage share of mobile subscribers of BSNL and private telecom service providers in their respective Licensed Service Areas (LSAs) consisting of State/UTs in the country is detailed at Annexure-I.
- (b) & (c) Yes Sir, Department of Telecommunications (DoT) has estimated  around  27,721 inhabited villages  in  the  country  as  per  recent  survey  carried  out  by  DoT  LSA  units  &  Telecom  Service  Providers (TSPs), which do not have mobile coverage, as detailed in Annexure-II & the steps taken by Government are given below:
-  The Government has planned to cover all uncovered villages in a phased manner, utilizing the Universal Service Obligation Fund (USOF).
-  Government  prioritized  to  reach  remote  areas  of  the  country  such  as  North-Eastern  States,  Islands, Himalayan States, Western Border States and more importantly the Left Wing Extremism affected areas in the first phase.

-  Under  Left  Wing  Extremism  (LWE)  affected  areas  Phase-I  project,  Government  had  approved  for installation of towers in 2355 locations in 10 states.  As on date, 2343 towers are radiating for providing coverage to about 3500 villages in 10 states.
-  Under LWE Phase-II project, mobile connectivity, by using 2G + 4G technology, is to be provided in inhabited and uncovered villages at 2217 tower locations.
-  A  Comprehensive  Telecom  Development  Plan  is  under  implementation  for  North  Eastern  Region  to provide  mobile  coverage  in  uncovered  villages,  along  with  National  Highways  and  to  strengthen transmission network.
-  Scheme for providing mobile connectivity in 354 villages of uncovered border areas, Ladakh and Kargil Region and other priority areas is under implementation.
-  A  scheme  for  provisioning  of  4G  based  Mobile  service  in  502  uncovered  villages  of  Aspirational districts  of  four  states  Uttar  Pradesh,  Bihar,  Madhya  Pradesh  &  Rajasthan  has  been  approved  on 20.12.2019.

(d) & (e) LSA-wise  number  of  4G-LTE  Base  Transceivers  Stations  (BTSs)  in  the  county  as  on  31 st March, 2014 & 29 th January, 2020 are detailed at Annexure-III .

Government  has  taken  several  policy  initiatives  to  facilitate  infrastructure  growth  for  delivery  of quality  services.  These  include  permitting  trading/sharing/liberalisation  of  spectrum,  permitting  passive  & active  infrastructure  sharing,  notification  of  Right  of  Way  Rules  2016,  making  available  government land/buildings for installations of towers etc. Telecom Service Providers also install mobile towers and BTSs on continuous basis to improve coverage and/or capacity of their networks based on their techno-commercial requirements.  As  a  result,  number  of  4G  BTSs  have  been  increased  from  3862  as  on  31 st March,  2014  to 14,06,171 on 29 th January, 2020 across the country.

(f) The download/upload speed of mobile internet is dependent on  number of factors such as technology (2G/3G/4G-LTE), closeness to the cell serving the customer, the number of users being served by the cell, the traffic handled by the cell, the user equipment/mobile handset used by the customer etc.  As such, the mobile users may experience different speeds at different locations and time of usage and there is no mechanism to assess the speed experienced by all the users in a particular village or town. However, Telecom Regulatory Authority  of  India  (TRAI)  has  been  obtaining  data  about  download  and  upload  speed  of  different  service providers for different wireless technologies through crowd sourcing using the TRAI MySpeed App and the reports are available to the public on TRAI  - 'MySpeed' Portal.  As per the data collected through Crowd Sourcing, the average download, over a period of last six months for 4G services is at Annexure-IV .

Annexure referred to in reply of para (a) of Lok Sabha Unstarred Question No. 504 to be answered on 5 th February,  2020  raised  by  Hon'ble  Member  of  Parliament  Col.  Rajyavardhan  Rathore,  regarding 'Mobile Network Coverage'

## The percentage share of mobile subscribers of BSNL and private telecom service providers in their respective Licensed Service Areas

| Sr. No.   | Service area         | Number of Wireless(Mobile) Subscribers of   | Number of Wireless(Mobile) Subscribers of   | Percentage share of BSNL to Total Subscribers   | Percentage share of private TSPs to Total Subscribers   |
|-----------|----------------------|---------------------------------------------|---------------------------------------------|-------------------------------------------------|---------------------------------------------------------|
| Sr. No.   | Service area         | BSNL                                        | Private TSPs                                | Percentage share of BSNL to Total Subscribers   | Percentage share of private TSPs to Total Subscribers   |
| 1         | Andhra Pradesh       | 99,74,217                                   | 7,81,77,700                                 | 11.31%                                          | 88.69%                                                  |
| 2         | Assam                | 27,05,457                                   | 2,17,28,436                                 | 11.07%                                          | 88.93%                                                  |
| 3         | Bihar                | 50,35,542                                   | 8,08,25,080                                 | 5.86%                                           | 94.14%                                                  |
| 4         | Gujarat              | 60,68,524                                   | 6,30,96,549                                 | 8.77%                                           | 91.23%                                                  |
| 5         | Haryana              | 50,07,976                                   | 2,36,79,628                                 | 17.46%                                          | 82.54%                                                  |
| 6         | Himachal Pradesh     | 29,29,237                                   | 79,65,733                                   | 26.89%                                          | 73.11%                                                  |
| 7         | Jammu &Kashmir       | 12,63,290                                   | 1,00,29,109                                 | 11.19%                                          | 88.81%                                                  |
| 8         | Karnataka            | 73,19,075                                   | 6,18,98,033                                 | 10.57%                                          | 89.43%                                                  |
| 9         | Kerala               | 1,09,22,653                                 | 3,41,73,451                                 | 24.22%                                          | 75.78%                                                  |
| 10        | Madhya Pradesh       | 63,25,755                                   | 7,04,06,189                                 | 8.24%                                           | 91.76%                                                  |
| 11        | Maharashtra          | 71,69,907                                   | 8,75,54,806                                 | 7.57%                                           | 92.43%                                                  |
| 12        | North East           | 14,58,756                                   | 1,09,75,959                                 | 11.73%                                          | 88.27%                                                  |
| 13        | Odisha               | 58,32,597                                   | 2,76,03,972                                 | 17.44%                                          | 82.56%                                                  |
| 14        | Punjab               | 56,24,285                                   | 3,49,77,706                                 | 13.85%                                          | 86.15%                                                  |
| 15        | Rajasthan            | 61,00,083                                   | 6,02,40,587                                 | 9.20%                                           | 90.80%                                                  |
| 16        | Tamil Nadu           | 1,21,81,968                                 | 7,09,26,866                                 | 14.66%                                          | 85.34%                                                  |
| 17        | Uttar Pradesh (East) | 1,16,15,374                                 | 8,92,45,997                                 | 11.52%                                          | 88.48%                                                  |
| 18        | Uttar Pradesh (West) | 58,82,081                                   | 5,97,41,597                                 | 8.96%                                           | 91.04%                                                  |
| 19        | West Bengal          | 20,30,748                                   | 5,50,17,521                                 | 3.56%                                           | 96.44%                                                  |
| 20        | Kolkata              | 17,52,817                                   | 2,47,16,483                                 | 6.62%                                           | 93.38%                                                  |
| 21        | Delhi                | 0                                           | 5,18,00,568                                 | 0.00                                            | 95.94%                                                  |
| 22        | Mumbai               | 0                                           | 3,78,87,208                                 | 0.00                                            | 96.94%                                                  |

Annexure  referred  to  in  reply  of  para  (b)  &  (c)  of  Lok  Sabha  Unstarred  Question  No.  504  to  be answered on 5 th  February, 2020 raised by Hon'ble Member of Parliament Col. Rajyavardhan Rathore, regarding 'Mobile Network Coverage'

State/UT-wise number of inhabited villages without mobile network coverage

| Sl. No.   | State Name          | Number of inhabited villages as per census 2011   | Number of uncovered inhabited villages as per survey carried out in 2019   |
|-----------|---------------------|---------------------------------------------------|----------------------------------------------------------------------------|
| 1         | Andaman &Nicobar    | 396                                               | 157                                                                        |
| 2         | Andhra Pradesh      | 16158                                             | 2095                                                                       |
| 3         | Arunachal Pradesh   | 5258                                              | 1804                                                                       |
| 4         | Assam               | 25372                                             | 1210                                                                       |
| 5         | Bihar               | 39073                                             | 266                                                                        |
| 6         | Chandigarh          | 5                                                 | 0                                                                          |
| 7         | Chhattisgarh        | 19567                                             | 2250                                                                       |
| 8         | Dadra &Nagar Haveli | 65                                                | 0                                                                          |
| 9         | Daman &Diu          | 19                                                | 0                                                                          |
| 10        | Delhi               | 103                                               | 0                                                                          |
| 11        | Goa                 | 320                                               | 23                                                                         |
| 12        | Gujarat             | 17843                                             | 691                                                                        |
| 13        | Haryana             | 6642                                              | 1                                                                          |
| 14        | Himachal Pradesh    | 17882                                             | 166                                                                        |
| 15        | Jammu &Kashmir      | 6337                                              | 200                                                                        |
| 16        | Jharkhand           | 29492                                             | 1253                                                                       |
| 17        | Karnataka           | 27397                                             | 563                                                                        |
| 18        | Kerala              | 1017                                              | 0                                                                          |
| 19        | Lakshadweep         | 6                                                 | 1                                                                          |
| 20        | Madhya Pradesh      | 51929                                             | 2970                                                                       |
| 21        | Maharashtra         | 40959                                             | 2989                                                                       |
| 22        | Manipur             | 2515                                              | 788                                                                        |
| 23        | Meghalaya           | 6459                                              | 1598                                                                       |
| 24        | Mizoram             | 704                                               | 270                                                                        |
| 25        | Nagaland            | 1400                                              | 269                                                                        |
| 26        | Odisha              | 47677                                             | 6549                                                                       |
| 27        | Punjab              | 12168                                             | 0                                                                          |
| 28        | Puducherry          | 90                                                | 0                                                                          |
| 29        | Rajasthan           | 43264                                             | 770                                                                        |
| 30        | Sikkim              | 425                                               | 11                                                                         |
| 31        | Tamil Nadu          | 15049                                             | 28                                                                         |
| 32        | Telangana           | 10128                                             | 110                                                                        |
| 33        | Tripura             | 863                                               | 8                                                                          |
| 34        | Uttarakhand         | 15745                                             | 419                                                                        |
| 35        | Uttar Pradesh       | 97813                                             | 205                                                                        |
| 36        | West Bengal         | 37478                                             | 57                                                                         |
|           | TOTAL               | 5,97,618                                          | 27,721                                                                     |

Annexure  referred  to  in  reply  of  para  (d)  &  (e)  of  Lok  Sabha  Unstarred  Question  No.  504  to  be answered on 5 th  February, 2020 raised by Hon'ble Member of Parliament Col. Rajyavardhan Rathore, regarding 'Mobile Network Coverage'

LSA-wise number of 4G-LTE Base Transceivers Stations (BTSs)

| Sr.         | License Service Area   | Number of 4G-LTE as on 31.03.2014   |   Number of 4G-LTE as on 29.01.2020 |
|-------------|------------------------|-------------------------------------|-------------------------------------|
| 1           | Andhra Pradesh         | 17                                  |                              103365 |
| 2           | Assam                  | -                                   |                               28646 |
| 3           | Bihar                  | -                                   |                               88933 |
| 4           | Delhi                  | 332                                 |                               64926 |
| 5           | Gujarat                | 5                                   |                               89072 |
| 6           | Himachal Pradesh       | -                                   |                               14669 |
| 7           | Haryana                | 6                                   |                               31868 |
| 8           | Jammu &Kashmir         | 1                                   |                               23025 |
| 9           | Karnataka              | 1850                                |                               94760 |
| 10          | Kolkata                | 881                                 |                               31369 |
| 11          | Kerala                 | -                                   |                               53059 |
| 12          | Mumbai                 | 13                                  |                               39960 |
| 13          | Maharashtra            | 499                                 |                              112656 |
| 14          | Madhya Pradesh         | -                                   |                               99535 |
| 15          | North-East             | -                                   |                               17841 |
| 16          | Odisha                 | -                                   |                               39930 |
| 17          | Punjab                 | 256                                 |                               51029 |
| 18          | Rajasthan              | -                                   |                               78088 |
| 19          | Tamil Nadu             | 1                                   |                              104111 |
| 20          | Uttar Pradesh (East)   | -                                   |                               99455 |
| 21          | Uttar Pradesh(West)    | 1                                   |                               76163 |
| 22          | West Bengal            | -                                   |                               63711 |
| Grand Total | Grand Total            | 3862                                |                             1406171 |

Annexure referred to in reply of para (f) of Lok Sabha Unstarred Question No. 504 to be answered on 5 th February,  2020  raised  by  Hon'ble  Member  of  Parliament  Col.  Rajyavardhan  Rathore,  regarding 'Mobile Network Coverage'

## Download Speed of 4G (In Mbps)

|   Sr. | Circles          | AIRTEL (Mbps)   | IDEA (Mbps)   |   RJIO (Mbps) | VODAFONE (Mbps)   |
|-------|------------------|-----------------|---------------|---------------|-------------------|
|     1 | Andhra Pradesh   | 13.5            | 3.4           |          23.1 |                   |
|     2 | Assam            | 13              | 19.1          |           5.5 | 7.3               |
|     3 | Bihar            | 7.1             | 6.6           |          34.4 |                   |
|     4 | Chennai          | 9.8             | 10            |          17.3 | 11.6              |
|     5 | Delhi            | 11              |               |          13.8 | 7.2               |
|     6 | Gujarat          | 6.6             | 9.4           |          22.8 | 8                 |
|     7 | Haryana          | 13.1            | 5.9           |          20.2 | 5.8               |
|     8 | Himachal Pradesh |                 | 4.5           |          16.6 |                   |
|     9 | Jammu &Kashmir   | 12.7            | 7.1           |           9.3 |                   |
|    10 | Karnataka        | 8.3             | 4.9           |          18.5 | 4.4               |
|    11 | Kerala           | 11.3            | 5.5           |          13.7 | 7.1               |
|    12 | Kolkata          | 9.8             |               |          21.3 | 8.4               |
|    13 | Madhya Pradesh   | 11.6            | 7.4           |          23.9 |                   |
|    14 | Maharashtra      | 11.2            | 5.8           |          19.8 | 6.5               |
|    15 | Mumbai           | 9.6             | 5.2           |          12.7 | 7.4               |
|    16 | North East       | 8.1             | 3             |           5.4 | 5.4               |
|    17 | Orissa           | 11.6            | 7             |          22.7 | 13.7              |
|    18 | Punjab           | 11.4            | 7             |          23.1 | 5.1               |
|    19 | Rajasthan        | 9.3             | 5.4           |          25.7 | 5.6               |
|    20 | Tamil Nadu       | 9.3             | 6             |          12.7 | 9.3               |
|    21 | UP East          | 6.3             | 3.8           |          19.5 | 4                 |
|    22 | UP West          | 5.3             | 5.7           |          21.6 | 3.7               |
|    23 | West Bengal      | 6.6             | 8             |          19.3 | 7.1               |

Disclaimer - The results represent the average of the data speed samples collected from various consumers of the TSPs on a crowd sourcing basis during speed test initiated by them over the last 6 months and background tests initiated by MySpeed App over last month.

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