Lok Sabha Question No. 1867 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2019-07-03
Subject: Mobile Services in Villages
Ministry: COMMUNICATIONS
Asked by: Alok Kumar Suman, Rahul Ramesh Shewale, Bhartruhari Mahtab

## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF COMMUNICATIONS DEPARTMENT OF TELECOMMUNICATIONS

## LOK  SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 1867 TO BE ANSWERED ON 3 RD  JULY, 2019

## MOBILE SERVICES IN VILLAGES

## 1867.   DR. ALOK KUMAR SUMAN: SHRI RAHUL RAMESH SHEWALE: SHRI BHARTRUHARI MAHTAB:

Will the Minister of COMMUNICATIONS be pleased to state:

- (a) whether a large number of villages in the country are not covered by mobile services;
- (b) if  so,  the  details  thereof  including  the  number  of  such  villages,  State/UT-wise  and  the reasons therefor along with the steps being taken by the Government in this regard, especially in the State of Bihar;
- (c) the  details  of  the  mobile  towers  and  telephone  exchanges  installed  by  the  Government across  the  country  to  provide  mobile  and  telephone  connectivity  to  the  left  out  villages/areas during each of the last three years and the current year, State/ UT-wise;
- (d) the number of mobile towers and telephone exchanges presently working and likely to be installed in the country, State/UT-wise; and
- (e) the steps taken by the Government in this regard?

## ANSWER

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

(a) & (b) As per data collected from the Telecom Service Providers (TSPs) in 2018, it was estimated that there are 43088 inhabited villages (as per the Census 2011) in the country which are not covered by mobile services. The details are at Annexure-I. The reasons for not having mobile  services  in  these  villages  include,  inter-alia,  remote  and  tough  terrain,  areas  diversely located with scattered population and commercially non-viable operations. Mobile coverage in such villages is being provided by the Government and Telecom Service Providers in a phased manner. Following projects are being implemented by the Government for providing/ facilitating telecom services:

- (i) Under  Left  Wing  Extremism  affected  areas  Phase-II  project,  Government  has approved  installation  of  3465  mobile  towers  for  providing  mobile  connectivity including 106 mobile towers in Bihar.

- (ii) Providing mobile connectivity in 361 villages of uncovered border areas, Ladakh and Kargil Region and other priority areas including 11 uncovered villages in Bihar.
- (iii) A Comprehensive Telecom Development Plan for mobile connectivity in the North Eastern  Region  to  provide  mobile  coverage  in  uncovered  villages,  along  with National Highways and to strengthen transmission network
- (iv) Laying of submarine optical fibre cable between Chennai and Andaman & Nicobar Islands for providing connectivity to Andaman & Nicobar Islands
- (v) Satellite Bandwidth Augmentation upto 4 Gbps for Andaman & Nicobar Islands
- (vi) Mobile connectivity to  cover uncovered villages  and along  National Highway (NH 223) in Andaman & Nicobar Islands
- (vii) Augmentation of Satellite bandwidth from 318 Mbps to 1.71 Gbps for Lakshadweep Islands
- (viii) Under BharatNet  project to provide broadband  connectivity in all  the  Gram Panchayats (approx 2.5 lakh) in the country.

## (c) The details are at Annexure-II.

(d) & (e)  The details of mobile towers and telephone exchanges working in the License Service Areas  (LSAs)  are  at  Annexure-III.  Planning  for  installation  of  mobile  towers  and  telephone exchanges by any Telecom Service Provider (TSP) is an ongoing process and depends on various factors like commercial viability, subscriber concentration, technology to be adopted etc.

## List of villages without mobile services

(As per the data collected from the telecom service providers in year 2018)

|   Sl. No. | State/UT            |   No. of inhabited villages without mobile services |
|-----------|---------------------|-----------------------------------------------------|
|         1 | Andaman &Nicobar    |                                                 165 |
|         2 | Andhra Pradesh      |                                                2745 |
|         3 | Arunachal Pradesh   |                                                2215 |
|         4 | Assam               |                                                 915 |
|         5 | Bihar               |                                                 263 |
|         6 | Chandigarh          |                                                   0 |
|         7 | Chhattisgarh        |                                                3563 |
|         8 | Dadra &Nagar Haveli |                                                   0 |
|         9 | Daman &Diu          |                                                   0 |
|        10 | NCT of Delhi        |                                                   0 |
|        11 | Goa                 |                                                  47 |
|        12 | Gujarat             |                                                1262 |
|        13 | Haryana             |                                                   8 |
|        14 | Himachal Pradesh    |                                                 211 |
|        15 | Jammu &Kashmir      |                                                 328 |
|        16 | Jharkhand           |                                                1222 |
|        17 | Karnataka           |                                                 869 |
|        18 | Kerala              |                                                   0 |
|        19 | Lakshadweep         |                                                   1 |
|        20 | Madhya Pradesh      |                                                5558 |
|        21 | Maharashtra         |                                                6117 |
|        22 | Manipur             |                                                 877 |
|        23 | Meghalaya           |                                                2691 |
|        24 | Mizoram             |                                                 314 |
|        25 | Nagaland            |                                                 328 |
|        26 | Odisha              |                                                9940 |
|        27 | Punjab              |                                                   4 |
|        28 | Puducherry          |                                                   0 |
|        29 | Rajasthan           |                                                1402 |
|        30 | Sikkim              |                                                  13 |
|        31 | Tamil Nadu          |                                                  83 |
|        32 | Telangana           |                                                 647 |
|        33 | Tripura             |                                                  16 |
|        34 | Uttarakhand         |                                                 552 |
|        35 | Uttar Pradesh       |                                                 295 |
|        36 | West Bengal         |                                                 437 |

## ANNEXURE-II

## State-wise list of towers installed in last three years and current year

| S. No.                                         | State/UT                                       | No. of towers installed during last three years and current year   |
|------------------------------------------------|------------------------------------------------|--------------------------------------------------------------------|
| A. Under theLWE affected areas Project Phase-I | A. Under theLWE affected areas Project Phase-I | A. Under theLWE affected areas Project Phase-I                     |
| 1                                              | Bihar                                          | 66                                                                 |
| 2                                              | Jharkhand                                      | 284                                                                |
| 3                                              | Odisha                                         | 118                                                                |
| 4                                              | West Bengal                                    | 18                                                                 |
| 5                                              | Chhattisgarh                                   | 40                                                                 |
| 6                                              | Maharashtra                                    | 9                                                                  |
| 7                                              | Andhra Pradesh                                 | 23                                                                 |
| 8                                              | Telangana                                      | 119                                                                |
| B. Under Comprehensive Telecom Eastern Region  | B. Under Comprehensive Telecom Eastern Region  | Development Plan for North                                         |
| 9                                              | Arunachal Pradesh                              | 23                                                                 |
| 10                                             | Assam                                          | 190                                                                |
| 11                                             | Manipur                                        | 46                                                                 |
| 12                                             | Mizoram                                        | 34                                                                 |
| 13                                             | Nagaland                                       | 35                                                                 |
| 14                                             | Sikkim                                         | 1                                                                  |
| 15                                             | Tripura                                        | 1                                                                  |
| C. In Lakshadweep islands                      | C. In Lakshadweep islands                      | C. In Lakshadweep islands                                          |
| 16                                             | Lakshadweep                                    | 10                                                                 |

| S.No   | Name of License Service Area (LSA)                                            |   No. of Mobile Towers of all Telecom Service Providers (As on 25.06.2019) |   No of Telephone Exchanges (As on 31.03.2019) |
|--------|-------------------------------------------------------------------------------|----------------------------------------------------------------------------|------------------------------------------------|
| 1      | Andhra Pradesh (including Telangana)                                          |                                                                      43393 |                                           2806 |
| 2      | Assam                                                                         |                                                                      12722 |                                            554 |
| 3      | Bihar                                                                         |                                                                      39556 |                                           1592 |
| 4      | Delhi                                                                         |                                                                      26559 |                                            377 |
| 5      | Gujarat                                                                       |                                                                      33345 |                                           2291 |
| 6      | Himachal Pradesh                                                              |                                                                       6786 |                                            670 |
| 7      | Haryana                                                                       |                                                                      12780 |                                            964 |
| 8      | Jammu &Kashmir                                                                |                                                                       9525 |                                            300 |
| 9      | Karnataka                                                                     |                                                                      36023 |                                           2766 |
| 10     | Kerala                                                                        |                                                                      17411 |                                           1398 |
| 11     | Kolkata                                                                       |                                                                      13020 |                                            467 |
| 12     | Maharashtra (excluding Mumbai and including Goa)                              |                                                                      42593 |                                          40484 |
| 13     | Madhya Pradesh (including Chhattisgarh)                                       |                                                                      41416 |                                           2865 |
| 14     | Mumbai                                                                        |                                                                      16480 |                                            291 |
| 15     | North-East                                                                    |                                                                       8157 |                                            389 |
| 16     | Odisha                                                                        |                                                                      17880 |                                           1080 |
| 17     | Punjab                                                                        |                                                                      20170 |                                           1426 |
| 18     | Rajasthan                                                                     |                                                                      30233 |                                           1939 |
| 19     | Tamil Nadu (including Poducherry)                                             |                                                                      43091 |                                           2324 |
| 20     | Uttar Pradesh (East)                                                          |                                                                      33760 |                                           2103 |
| 21     | Uttar Pradesh (West) (including Uttrakhand)                                   |                                                                      29091 |                                           1377 |
| 22     | West Bengal (Excluding Kolkata including Sikkim and Andaman &Nicobar Islands) |                                                                      22392 |                                           1375 |
|        | Total                                                                         |                                                                     556383 |                                          33438 |

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