Lok Sabha Question No. 203 (STARRED), answered on 2018-12-26
Subject: Communication Network Coverage
Ministry: COMMUNICATIONS
Asked by: RAJESH PANDEY, RAVINDRA KUMAR PANDEY

## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF COMMUNICATIONS DEPARTMENT OF TELECOMMUNICATIONS

## LOK  SABHA STARRED QUESTION NO.203 TO BE ANSWERED ON 26 TH  DECEMBER, 2018

## COMMUNICATION NETWORK COVERAGE

- *203.  SHRI RAJESH PANDEY: SHRI RAVINDRA KUMAR PANDEY:

Will the Minister of COMMUNICATIONS be pleased to state:

- (a) whether the Government has any data regarding the percentage of coverage of communication network in Uttar Pradesh and Jharkhand;
- (b) if so, the details thereof, district-wise in respective States; and
- (c) the steps taken/being taken by the Government to increase the communication network coverage in remote/forest regions of the said States?

## ANSWER

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

- (a) to (c) A statement is laid on the Table of the House.

Contd………2/-

## STATEMENT  TO  BE  LAID  ON  THE  TABLE  OF  LOK  SABHA  IN  RESPECT  OF PARTS  (a)  TO  (c)  OF  LOK  SABHA  STARRED  QUESTION  NO.  *203  FOR  26 TH DECEMBER, 2018 ON 'COMMUNICATION NETWORK COVERAGE'.

(a)  &  (b)  Communication  network  basically  includes  communication  infrastructure, coverage,  and  telephone  and  internet  penetration.  As  licenses  to  the  operators  are given service area wise, therefore the data is also maintained in the Department service area wise and not district wise. The details regarding Towers, Base Transceiver Station (BTS), and telephone and internet connections in the service areas of Uttar Pradesh (East),  Uttar  Pradesh  (West)  and  Bihar  (which  includes  Jharkhand  service  area)  are given as under:

| Service Area                |   No. of Towers |   No. of BTS |   Total telephone connections (in millions, as on October 2018) | Teledensity (in %)   |   Internet connections(in millions as on September 2018) |
|-----------------------------|-----------------|--------------|-----------------------------------------------------------------|----------------------|----------------------------------------------------------|
| Uttar Pradesh (East)        |           30693 |       130631 |                                                          107.09 | 70.10*               |                                                    38.18 |
| Uttar Pradesh (West)        |           26358 |       105560 |                                                           59.75 | 70.10*               |                                                    27.78 |
| Bihar (including Jharkhand) |           36147 |       107305 |                                                           87.7  | 61.90                |                                                    32.73 |
| All India                   |          506746 |      2007568 |                                                         1192.13 | 91.18                |                                                   560.01 |

* Teledensity calculated for the State as a whole as the population for UP (East) and UP (West) is not available separately.

Source: TRAI and DoT

(c) The  Department  is  implementing  projects  to  provide  mobile  connectivity  in remote  and  rural  uncovered  areas.  A  project  to  provide  mobile  service  in  LWE  (Left Wing  Extremism)  affected  areas  including  Jharkhand  is  being  implemented.  Under Phase-I,  out  of  2355  tower  locations  identified  by  the  Ministry  of  Home  Affairs,  2341 towers have been commissioned which includes 78 towers in Uttar Pradesh and 816 towers in Jharkhand. The Government has decided to install 179 towers in UP and 1054 in Jharkhand under Phase-II of the project.

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.

As  on  16.12.2018,  a  total  of  2544  GPs  in  Jharkhand  and  29860  GPs  in  Uttar Pradesh have been connected with optical fibre cable of which 2312 GPs in Jharkhand and 27940 GPs in Uttar Pradesh have been made service ready.

As part of BharatNet project, the last mile connectivity, through Wi-Fi or any other suitable  broadband  technology,  is  envisaged  to  be  provided  at  all  the  GPs  in  the country.  On an average, five Access Points (APs) are envisaged to be provided at each GP. Of the five APs, three APs are for Government institutions and two APs for public places.

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