Lok Sabha Question No. 1592 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2018-12-19
Subject: Internet and Broadband Users
Ministry: COMMUNICATIONS
Asked by: LALLU SINGH, REKHA ARUN VERMA

## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF COMMUNICATIONS DEPARTMENT OF TELECOMMUNICATIONS

## LOK  SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION NO.1592 TO BE ANSWERED ON 19 th   DECEMBER, 2018

## INTERNET AND BROADBAND USERS

- †1592.  SHRI LALLU SINGH: SHRIMATI REKHA VERMA:

Will the Minister of COMMUNICATIONS be pleased to state:

- (a) whether the Government has fixed any annual target to increase the number of internet and broadband users across the country;
- (b) if so, the details thereof and if not, the reasons therefor;
- (c) the  access  rate  of  internet  separately  in  rural  and  urban  areas  during  the  last  three years;
- (d) the  action  taken/worked  out  by  the  Government to  reduce this gap  in  urban and  rural areas; and
- (e) whether internet/broadband services particularly in rural and various border areas across the country are not satisfactory and if so, the reaction of the Government thereto?

## ANSWER

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

(a) &(b) Government  has  not  fixed  any  specific  annual  targets  for  the  internet  and broadband   services in the country. However the National Digital Communications Policy 2018, unveiled by the Government recently, has the following goals for 2022 for increasing the internet and broadband penetration in the country:

-  Provide universal broadband connectivity at 50Mbps to every citizen
-  Provide 1 Gbps connectivity to all Gram Panchayats of India by 2020 and 10 Gbps by 2022.
-  Enable 100 Mbps broadband on demand to all key development institutions
-  Enable fixed line broadband access to 50% of the households
-  Enable deployment of public wi-fi hotspots, to reach 5 million by 2020 and 10 million by 2022
-  Ensure connectivity to all uncovered areas.

(c) The details of internet access in rural and urban areas during the last three years and the current year is given below:

|                          | Urban                                     | Urban                | Urban                                             | Rural                                  | Rural                | Rural                                             |
|--------------------------|-------------------------------------------|----------------------|---------------------------------------------------|----------------------------------------|----------------------|---------------------------------------------------|
| Year                     | Total Internet connections (in million)** | Population* in '000' | Number of internet connections per 100 population | Total Internet connections (million)** | Population* in '000' | Number of internet connections per 100 population |
| 2015-16                  | 230.71                                    | 396045               | 58.25                                             | 111.95                                 | 872916               | 12.82                                             |
| 2016-17                  | 285.68                                    | 403514               | 70.79                                             | 136.52                                 | 880086               | 15.51                                             |
| 2017-18                  | 348.12                                    | 410996               | 84.70                                             | 145.82                                 | 887045               | 16.44                                             |
| 2018-19 (upto Sept 2018) | 365.94                                    | 418475               | 87.44                                             | 194.07                                 | 893765               | 21.71                                             |

*  Population projected by Registrar General of India (RGI)

** Source: Internet connection by TRAI

(d) With the aim of boosting broadband infrastructure in the rural areas  and reducing the digital  divide,  the  Government  is  implementing  the  flagship  BharatNet  project  in  a  phased manner for providing Broadband connectivity to all the 2,50,000 Gram Panchayats (GPs) in the country.  Phase  I  of  BharatNet  for  connecting  1  lakh  GPs  has  been  completed  in  December 2017. Phase II of the project is under implementation.  As on date a total of 1,21,859 Gram Panchayats have been connected on Optical Fibre Cable(OFC) by laying 3,02,621 Km of OFC. Of this, 1,16,492 GPs are now service ready.

## Public Wi-Fi Access

The BharatNet project also envisages access to broadband service through Wi-Fi in all the  GPs  in  the  country  for  ensuring  last  mile  connectivity.  At  each  GP,  on  an  average,  five Access  Points  (APs)  are  envisaged  to  be  provided,  of  which  three  APs  are  for  Government institutions  and  two  APs  for  public  places.  In  addition  to  the  wi-fi  hotspots  provisioned  in BharatNet,  the  Government  proposes  to  setup  25,000  Public  Wi-Fi  hotspots  infrastructure  at BSNL's Telephone Exchanges in rural areas.

(e) Information on  performance  in  rural &  various borders  areas  is  not  maintained separately. However, performance of service providers against the Quality of Service standards for  Broadband  &  Wireless  services  laid  down  by  the  TRAI  is  monitored  through  Quarterly Performance Monitoring Reports (PMR) submitted by service providers for the service area as a whole.

As  per  PMR  for  the  quarter  ending  September  2018,  for  Broadband  Services,  all  the service  providers  are  meeting  the  benchmarks  for  all  the  parameters  except  the  service providers as mentioned in Annexure.

As  regards  wireless  data  services,  all  the  service  providers  are  complying  with  the benchmark for various Quality of Service parameters.

## Annexure

## Service Providers not meeting the QoS benchmarks as per the PMR for the quarter ending 30 th September, 2018

|   S.N | Service Provider                         | Parameter not met                                  | Parameter not met                                                                                               | Benchma rk   | Service Area            |
|-------|------------------------------------------|----------------------------------------------------|-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|--------------|-------------------------|
|     1 | MTNL                                     | Faults Repair                                      | %of faults repaired within 3 working day                                                                        | =>99%        | Delhi & Mumbai (98.32%) |
|     2 | Atria Convergence Technologies Pvt. Ltd. | Faults Repair                                      | %of faults repaired within 3 working day                                                                        | =>99%        | All India (98.74%)      |
|     2 | Atria Convergence Technologies Pvt. Ltd. | Response time to the customer for assistance       | %age of calls answered by operator (Voice to voice) within 60 sec                                               | >60%         | All India (39.00%)      |
|     2 | Atria Convergence Technologies Pvt. Ltd. | Response time to the customer for assistance       | %age of calls answered by operator (Voice to voice) within 90 sec                                               | >80%         | All India (58.00%)      |
|     3 | Intech Online Pvt. Ltd.                  | Faults Repair                                      | %of faults repaired by next working day (>90%)                                                                  | >90%         | Mum. & Mah. (80.81%)    |
|     3 | Intech Online Pvt. Ltd.                  | Faults Repair                                      | %of faults repaired within 3 working day                                                                        | =>99%        | Mum. & Mah. (88.70%)    |
|     3 | Intech Online Pvt. Ltd.                  | Billing Performance                                | %age of bills disputed                                                                                          | <2%          | Mum. & Mah. (3.01%)     |
|     4 | Ishan Netsol Pvt. Ltd.                   | Service Provisioning                               | %age of connections provided within 15 days of registration of demand                                           | 100%         | Gujarat (99.76%)        |
|     4 | Ishan Netsol Pvt. Ltd.                   | Faults Repair                                      | %of faults repaired within 3 working day                                                                        | =>99%        | Gujarat (98.48%)        |
|     4 | Ishan Netsol Pvt. Ltd.                   | Bandwidth utilisation/ throughput                  | No. of Intra network links having Bandwidth utilisation >90% during peak hours (TCBH)                           | 0            | Gujarat (62)            |
|     4 | Ishan Netsol Pvt. Ltd.                   | Bandwidth utilisation/ throughput                  | No. of Upstream links for International connectivity having bandwidth utilisation >90% during peak hours (TCBH) | 0            | Gujarat (18)            |
|     5 | K Net Solutions Pvt. Ltd.                | Service availability/uptime (for all user) in %age | Service availability/uptime (for all user) in %age                                                              | >98%         | Tamilnadu (50.05%)      |
|     6 | TATA (TTSL)                              | Faults Repair                                      | %of faults repaired by next working day (>90%)                                                                  | >90%         | All India (82.00%)      |
|     6 | TATA (TTSL)                              | Faults Repair                                      | %of faults repaired within 3 working day                                                                        | =>99%        | All India (94.00%)      |
|     7 | TATA (TTML)                              | Faults Repair                                      | %of faults repaired by next working day (>90%)                                                                  | >90%         | Maharashtra (77.00%)    |
|     7 | TATA (TTML)                              | Faults Repair                                      | %of faults repaired within 3 working day                                                                        | =>99%        | Maharashtra (91.00%)    |
|     8 | You Broadband                            | Service Provisioning                               | %age of connections provided within 15 days of registration of demand                                           | 100%         | All India (99.71%)      |

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