Lok Sabha Question No. 2173 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2020-03-04
Subject: Mobile and Landline Customers in North Eastern Region
Ministry: COMMUNICATIONS
Asked by: Naba (Hira) Kumar Sarania

## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF COMMUNICATIONS DEPARTMENT OF TELECOMMUNICATIONS

## LOK  SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 2173 TO BE ANSWERED ON 4 TH  MARCH, 2020

## MOBILE AND LANDLINE CUSTOMERS IN NORTH EASTERN REGION

## †2173. SHRI NABA KUMAR SARANIA:

Will the Minister of COMMUNICATIONS be pleased to state:

- (a) the  number  of  Bharat  Sanchar  Nigam  Limited  (BSNL)  mobile  and  landline  customers  in North Eastern States of the country, State/UT-wise;
- (b) the  steps  taken/being  taken  by  the  Government  to  strengthen  BSNL  network  in  the  said region;
- (c) the  steps  taken  by  the  Government  to  enhance  the  BSNL  broadband  speed  in  the  aforesaid region;
- (d) whether BSNL landlines are functional in the said region where there is reportedly no use of landlines and if so, the details thereof; and
- (e) the  details  of  States/UTs  where  the  work  on  Bharat  Net  project  is  going  on  along  with  the number  of  villages  in  the  North  Eastern  States  which  has  been  covered  under  the  said  project, State/UT-wise?

## ANSWER

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

- (a) State-wise  detail  of  mobile  and  landline  connections  of  Bharat  Sanchar  Nigam  Limited (BSNL) in the North Eastern States of the country is as under:

|   S.No. | State             | Mobile connections   | Landline connections   |
|---------|-------------------|----------------------|------------------------|
|       1 | Assam             | 27,61,008            | 78,400                 |
|       2 | Arunachal Pradesh | 2,31,299             | 23,092                 |
|       3 | Manipur           | 1,19,185             | 18,931                 |
|       4 | Nagaland          | 1,03,594             | 5,936                  |
|       5 | Meghalaya         | 3,13,745             | 15,064                 |
|       6 | Mizoram           | 2,20,736             | 11,354                 |
|       7 | Tripura           | 4,20,730             | 17,858                 |
|       8 | Sikkim            | 45,000 (approx.)     | 5,254                  |

(b) BSNL  has  informed  that  to  strengthen  its  network,  BSNL  is  progressively  adding  Base Transceiver Stations (BTSs) and laying optical fibre cable in a phased manner and improving landline services  through  installation  of  Next  Generation  Network  (NGN)/C-DoT  Max  NG  state  of  the  art technology telephone exchanges.

Apart  from  above,  Department  of  Telecommunications  (DoT)  is  utilising  the  strength  and competence  of  BSNL  to  implement  a  number  of  important  projects  including  'Implementation  of transmission media plan for North Eastern Region Project' to strengthen telecom services in North Eastern  region.    Under  Universal  Services  Obligation  Fund  (USOF)  schemes,  Optical  Fibre  Cable (OFC) to connect Block Headquarters (BHQs) to District Headquarters (DHQs) in Assam State is complete.

(c) To enhance its broadband services, following measures have been taken by BSNL:

-  56  number  of  High  capacity  Multiprotocol  Label  Switching  Transport  Profile  (MPLS-TP) technology based (MNG PAN) switches are deployed in North Eastern States which improved the traffic handling capacity of the access network in the North Eastern region.
-  In addition to the existing six (6) number of Broadband Network Gateways (BNGs), four (4) number  of  high  speed  BNGs  has  been  deployed  at  Guwahati,  Bongaigaon,  Shillong  and Arunachal Pradesh to improve the customer browsing experience.
-  In  case  of  congestion,  backhaul  of  DSLAM  (Digital  Subscriber  Line  Access  Multiplexer), OCLAN (Other City Lane Area Network), OLT (Optical Line Terminal) are being upgraded to improve the browsing experience.

(d) BSNL has informed that its landline services are functional in North Eastern States.  There is no report that landline services of BSNL in North Eastern States are of no use.

(e) As  on  24.02.2020,  State  wise  details  of  number  of  service  ready  Gram  Panchayats  (GPs) under Bharat Net in the North Eastern States is at Annexure.

## Annexure

Annexure referred to in Part (e) of the Lok Sabha Unstarred Question No. 2173 for Answer on 04.03.2020.

## Progress of implementation of the BharatNet Project

| S. No.   | State/UT          | Service Ready Gram Panchayats   |
|----------|-------------------|---------------------------------|
| 1        | Arunachal Pradesh | 283                             |
| 2        | Assam             | 1,622                           |
| 3        | Manipur           | 677                             |
| 4        | Meghalaya         | 195                             |
| 5        | Mizoram           | 141                             |
| 6        | Nagaland          | 129                             |
| 7        | Sikkim            | 18                              |
| 8        | Tripura           | 686                             |
| TOTAL    | TOTAL             | 3,751                           |

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