Lok Sabha Question No. 703 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2019-06-26
Subject: Wi-Fi Connectivity
Ministry: COMMUNICATIONS
Asked by: Devji Mansingram Patel

## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF COMMUNICATIONS DEPARTMENT OF TELECOMMUNICATIONS

## LOK  SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 703 TO BE ANSWERED ON 26 TH  JUNE, 2019

## WI-FI CONNECTIVITY

## †703. SHRI DEVJI M. PATEL:

Will the Minister of COMMUNICATIONS be pleased to state:

- (a) whether  the  Government  proposes  to  provide  high  speed  Wi-Fi  connectivity  in  2500 cities, towns and panchayats across the country including Rajasthan under National Optical Fibre Network Project during the next three years and if so, the details thereof;
- (b) whether any time limit has been fixed in this regard and if so, the details thereof;
- (c) whether the project is not likely to be completed on time due to delay in procurement of necessary  devices  like  gigabyte  passive  optical  network  and  if  so,  the  details  thereof  and  the reasons therefor; and
- (d) if  so,  the  total  number  of  kilometre  of  fibre  cable  laid  down  so  far  in  the  country, State/UT-wise including Rajasthan?

## ANSWER

## MINISTER OF COMMUNICATIONS, LAW & JUSTICE AND ELECTRONICS AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY (SHRI RAVI SHANKAR PRASAD)

- (a) Under  BharatNet  Project  (earlier  known  as  National  Optical  Fibre  Network),  all  the 2,50,000 (approx.) Gram Panchayats of the country are planned to be provided with broadband connectivity. Till date, 1,28,870 GPs (including 8712 GPs of Rajasthan), have been connected with optical fibre, of which 1,19,513 (including 8612 GPs of Rajasthan) GPs have been made Service Ready.As part of BharatNet project, the Last Mile connectivity, through Wi-Fi or any other suitable broadband technology to access broadband /internet services, is to be provided at all the 2.5 lakh GPs in the country. As of now, Wi-Fi hotspots have been installed in 44,140 GPs (including 8661 GPs in Rajasthan).
- (b) Phase  I  of  the  project  was  completed  in  December  2017  and  1  lakh  GPs  were  made Service Ready. Phase II of the project is under implementation and a total of 2 lakh GPs are targeted to be completed by March 2020.
- (c) All out efforts are being made to expeditiously implement the project. The delay in the initial implementation of the project was on account of:

- (i) Delay in the initial commencement of project as the work on the project began in the second half of 2014 due to field survey of GPs and pilot testing of the technology model.
- (ii) Only one media that is underground OFC to cover GPs, and Right of Way (RoW) issues.

Since May 2016, with the constitution of the following committees, the issues are being resolved timely:

- i) Empowered Committee under Secretary, DoT.
2. ii) Steering Committee under Administrator, USOF.
3. iii) State  Committee  under  Chief  General  Manager  (CGM),  BSNL  for  resolution  of State level issues.

(d) Total  number  of  kilometre  of  fibre  cable  laid  so  far  in  the  country,  State/UT-wise including Rajasthan is at Annexure-I.

Fiber Cable Laid under BharatNet

| Sr. No                  | States/UTs              | Fiber Cable Laid under BharatNet   |
|-------------------------|-------------------------|------------------------------------|
| Units                   | Units                   | (Kms)                              |
| 1                       | Assam                   | 4810                               |
| 2                       | Bihar                   | 19369                              |
| 3                       | Chhattisgarh            | 13940                              |
| 4                       | Haryana                 | 11968                              |
| 5                       | J&K                     | 749                                |
| 6                       | Karnataka               | 14010                              |
| 7                       | Kerala                  | 830                                |
| 8                       | MP                      | 46295                              |
| 9                       | Maharashtra             | 36957                              |
| 10                      | Punjab                  | 16841                              |
| 11                      | Rajasthan               | 28787                              |
| 12                      | UP(E)                   | 45339                              |
| 13                      | UP(W)                   | 25430                              |
| 14                      | Uttarakhand             | 3595                               |
| 15                      | West Bengal             | 8384                               |
| 16                      | Sikkim                  | 665                                |
| 17                      | A&N                     | 34                                 |
| 18                      | Chandigarh              | 19                                 |
| 19                      | Arunachal               | 1519                               |
| 20                      | Nagaland                | 1998                               |
| 21                      | Manipur                 | 634                                |
| 22                      | Mizoram                 | 689                                |
| 23                      | Tripura                 | 1683                               |
| 24                      | Meghalaya               | 950                                |
| 25                      | Gujarat                 | 17929                              |
| 26                      | D&D                     | 26                                 |
| 27                      | D&NH                    | 68                                 |
| 28                      | Puducherry              | 92                                 |
| 29                      | Tamil Nadu              | 0                                  |
| 30                      | AP                      | 8317                               |
| 31                      | Telangana               | 5369                               |
| 32                      | Odisha                  | 12011                              |
| 33                      | Jharkhand               | 7484                               |
| 34                      | HP                      | 723                                |
| 35                      | Lakshdweep              | 0                                  |
| (Total all States &UTs) | (Total all States &UTs) | 337515                             |

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Annexure-I