Lok Sabha Question No. 2396 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2018-12-26
Subject: Rural-Urban Mobile Ownership Gap
Ministry: COMMUNICATIONS
Asked by: J. JAYASINGH THIYAGARAJ NATTERJEE

## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF COMMUNICATIONS DEPARTMENT OF TELECOMMUNICATIONS

## LOK  SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION NO.2396 TO BE ANSWERED ON 26 TH  DECEMBER, 2018

## RURAL-URBAN MOBILE OWNERSHIP GAP

2396. SHRI J.J.T. NATTERJEE:

Will the Minister of COMMUNICATIONS be pleased to state:

- (a) whether  the  country's  rural-urban  mobile  ownership  gap  is  worse  than  Pakistan  and Bangladesh;
- (b) if so, the details thereof;
- (c) whether  over  40,000  inhabited  villages  in  the  country  do  not  have  mobile  phone services;
- (d) if so, the details thereof; and
- (e) whether the Government has any scheme for addressing the said situation and if so, the details thereof?

## ANSWER

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

(a) & (b) There are studies on mobile ownership available on the internet/public domain by some  private  agencies.    As  per  a  report  based  on  surveys  of  households  and  individuals conducted by LIRNEASIA and RESEARCH ICT AFRICA, the urban-rural gap in mobile phone ownership  (as  %  of  population  aged  15-65  years)  in  India  is  22%  as  compared  to  7%  in Bangladesh and 5%  in Pakistan. However, the Government has not carried out or commissioned any such study and hence is not in a position to authenticate their findings.

- (c) & (d) Àt  present  there  are  43,088  villages  in  the  country  that  do  not  have  mobile services.  The details are given at Annexure .
- (e) Ensuring connectivity in remote and rural areas remains a priority of the Government. Key projects are being implemented from Universal Service Obligation Fund for this purpose.

The Department of Telecom executed a project for providing Mobile Services in 2,335 locations in Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Odisha,  Telangana,  Uttar  Pradesh  and  West  Bengal,  which  are  affected  by  Left  Wing Extremism (LWE). As part of LWE Phase-2, Government has decided to install additional 4,072 mobile towers.

The Government has created a comprehensive telecommunication development plan for the  entire  North  East  Region  for  providing  mobile  connectivity  in  8,621  villages.    The Government  is  also  strengthening  significantly  the  connectivity  with  Andaman  and  Nicobar Islands by laying 2164.23 km of Submarine Optical Fibre Cable between Mainland (Chennai) and Port Blair and five other islands namely Car Nicobar, Little Andaman, Havelock, Kamorta and Great Nicobar Islands of Andaman & Nicobar Islands.

The Department is also implementing the flagship BharatNet project in a phased manner for  providing  connectivity  to  all  the  2,50,000  Gram  Panchayats  (GPs)  in  the  country  through optimal mix of media like optical fibre cable (OFC), satellite and radio. Phase I of BharatNet for connecting 1 lakh GPs has been completed in December 2017. Phase II of the project is under implementation.

The list of villages without mobile services (Based on 2018 Survey)

|   Sl. No. | State Name           |   No. of inhabited villages as per census 2011 |   No. of inhabited villages without mobile services |
|-----------|----------------------|------------------------------------------------|-----------------------------------------------------|
|         1 | Andaman & Nicobar    |                                            396 |                                                 165 |
|         2 | Andhra Pradesh       |                                          16158 |                                                2745 |
|         3 | Arunachal Pradesh    |                                           5258 |                                                2215 |
|         4 | Assam                |                                          25372 |                                                 915 |
|         5 | Bihar                |                                          39073 |                                                 263 |
|         6 | Chandigarh           |                                              5 |                                                   0 |
|         7 | Chhattisgarh         |                                          19567 |                                                3563 |
|         8 | Dadra & Nagar Haveli |                                             65 |                                                   0 |
|         9 | Daman & Diu          |                                             19 |                                                   0 |
|        10 | Delhi                |                                            103 |                                                   0 |
|        11 | Goa                  |                                            320 |                                                  47 |
|        12 | Gujarat              |                                          17843 |                                                1262 |
|        13 | Haryana              |                                           6642 |                                                   8 |
|        14 | Himachal Pradesh     |                                          17882 |                                                 211 |
|        15 | Jammu & Kashmir      |                                           6337 |                                                 328 |
|        16 | Jharkhand            |                                          29492 |                                                1222 |
|        17 | Karnataka            |                                          27397 |                                                 869 |
|        18 | Kerala               |                                           1017 |                                                   0 |
|        19 | Lakshadweep          |                                              6 |                                                   1 |
|        20 | Madhya Pradesh       |                                          51929 |                                                5558 |
|        21 | Maharashtra          |                                          40959 |                                                6117 |
|        22 | Manipur              |                                           2515 |                                                 877 |
|        23 | Meghalaya            |                                           6459 |                                                2691 |
|        24 | Mizoram              |                                            704 |                                                 314 |
|        25 | Nagaland             |                                           1400 |                                                 328 |
|        26 | Odisha               |                                          47677 |                                                9940 |
|        27 | Punjab               |                                          12168 |                                                   4 |
|        28 | Puducherry           |                                             90 |                                                   0 |
|        29 | Rajasthan            |                                          43264 |                                                1402 |
|        30 | Sikkim               |                                            425 |                                                  13 |
|        31 | Tamil Nadu           |                                          15049 |                                                  83 |
|        32 | Telangana            |                                          10128 |                                                 647 |
|        33 | Tripura              |                                            863 |                                                  16 |
|        34 | Uttarakhand          |                                          15745 |                                                 552 |
|        35 | Uttar Pradesh        |                                          97813 |                                                 295 |
|        36 | West Bengal          |                                          37478 |                                                 437 |

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