Lok Sabha Question No. 329 (STARRED), answered on 2015-08-12
Subject: Broadband Penetration
Ministry: COMMUNICATIONS AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY
Asked by: KONAKALLA NARAYANA RAO, SULTAN  AHMED

**GOVERNMENT OF INDIA**

**MINISTRY OF COMMUNICATIONS AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY**

**DEPARTMENT OF TELECOMMUNICATIONS**

**LOK SABHA**

**STARRED QUESTION NO.329**

**TO BE ANSWERED ON 12** **th** **AUGUST, 2015**

**BROADBAND PENETRATION**

***329. 	SHRI KONAKALLA NARAYANA RAO:**

**SHRI SULTAN AHMED:**

Will the Minister of COMMUNICATIONS AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY be pleased to state:

(a)	 whether the usage of internet and broadband penetration rates in the country is one of the lowest in the world and if so, the details thereof;

(b)	 the penetration of internet and mobile in the major developing/developed countries;

(c) 	whether the Government is aware that private players are reluctant to invest in rural India and as such the position of broadband penetration in rural areas is not encouraging and if so, the details thereof;

(d) 	the funds earmarked and utilised for providing internet/broadband services in urban and rural areas separately during the Twelfth Five Year Plan period; and

(e)	 the measures the Government has taken for deeper digital penetration in urban and rural areas of the country?

ANSWER

**THE MINISTER OF COMMUNICATIONS AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY**

**(SHRI RAVI SHANKAR PRASAD)**

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

**STATEMENT TO BE LAID ON THE TABLE OF THE LOK SABHA IN RESPECT OF PARTS (a) TO (e) OF LOK SABHA STARRED QUESTION NO. *329 FOR 12** **TH** **AUGUST 2015 REGARDING “BROADBAND PENETRATION”**

1. Yes. As per ITU data available for year 2013, India’s position in Fixed/Wired Broadband is 125 out of 190 countries and in Mobile/Wireless Broadband  it is 113 out of 138. However as on March 2015, India has 302.35 million internet connections which is 10.2% of the total internet connections in the world. The total Internet subscriber per 100 population in the country as on 31 st March 2015, is 24.09.  As per Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI)’s Quarterly Performance Report for the period ending December, 2014, there is an increase of 12 %  in  the internet penetration rate over the period of one year.  Similarly, as per TRAI’s monthly Telecom Subscription Data of May, 2014 and May, 2015, the broadband penetration rate has increased by 60.66 percent over the period of one year.

1. Penetration of Fixed/ wired broadband, Mobile /Wireless broadband and Mobile Teledensity  in various developed and developing countries is given at **Annexure-A.**

1. As per TRAI the share of private sector in total internet connections is 88.7%.  The share of rural India is nearly 37% of the total internet subscribers in the country as on March 2015.  The details are given at **Annexure-B.**

1. The funds earmarked/allocated and utilised for providing broadband services in rural areas under USOF schemes during the twelfth Five Year Plan is as under :
| **Name of Scheme**     | **Twelfth five Year Plan 2012-17**  **(Amount in Crores of Rupees)**   |         |         |                            | Total   |
|------------------------|------------------------------------------------------------------------|---------|---------|----------------------------|---------|
|                        | 2012-13                                                                | 2013-14 | 2014-15 | 2015-16  (Till 30.06.2015) |         |
| **NOFN**               | 405.00                                                                 | 514.00  | 1351.86 | 0.00                       | 2270.86 |
| **Wireline Broadband** | 70.66                                                                  | 60.48   | 80.54   | 13.32                      | 225.00  |
| **OFC Assam**          | 0.77                                                                   | 0.00    | 31.40   | 0.00                       | 32.17   |
| **Total**              | 476.43                                                                 | 574.48  | 1463.80 | 13.32                      | 2528.03 |

1. The Government of India is implementing the ‘ **DIGITAL INDIA** ’ programme with the vision to transform India into a digitally empowered society and knowledge economy. It is an umbrella programme that weaves together a single comprehensive vision for digital inclusion. The vision of Digital India is focused on three key areas, viz. (i) Infrastructure as a utility to every citizen, (ii) Governance and services on demand and (iii) Digital empowerment of citizen. Digital India aims at  providing  the much needed thrust to nine pillars of growth areas viz. (i) Broadband highways, (ii) Universal access to mobile connectivity, (iii) Public internet access programme, (iv) e-Governance – reforming Government through technology, (v) e-Kranti– electronic delivery of services, (vi) Information for all, (vii) Electronics manufacturing – target net zero imports, (viii) Information Technology (IT) for jobs and (ix) Early harvest programmes.

Further for deeper penetration in rural and remote areas USOF has adopted a two pronged strategy i.e. launching of scheme for provision of broadband to the end users as well as augmentation of OFC backhaul media for carrying broadband traffic from rural areas to the core network. Following measures have been  taken.

1. **National Optical Fibre Netwrok**

For the penetration of broadband in rural areas National Optical Fibre Network (NOFN) project was planned at an estimated cost of  Rs.20,100 crore to connect all Gram Panchayats (approx. 2.5 Lakh) in the country through Optical Fibre Cable (OFC) by bridging the connectivity gap between Gram Panchayats (GPs) and Blocks for providing broadband connectivity. Under this project, at least 100 Mbps bandwidth was to be provided in all the estimated 2,50,000 GPs for utilization by all categories of service providers on non-discriminatory basis including Internet Service Providers. As on 02.08.2015, OFC laying in 24,156 Gram Panchayats are completed.

1. **Rural Wireline Broadband Scheme**

The Rural Wireline Broadband Scheme envisages to provide wire-line broadband connectivity to rural & remote areas by leveraging the existing rural exchanges infrastructure and copper wire-line network.

1. **General Infrastructure Augmentation**

For provision of broadband in rural areas, sufficient back-haul capacity is required to integrate the voice and data traffic from the access network in the rural areas to their core network by strengthening the OFC network. Accordingly, this scheme considers OFC Network augmentation between the blocks' HQ and Districts' HQ to begin with. The States of Assam, Meghalaya, Manipur, Tripura, Mizoram, Arunachal Pradesh, & Nagaland have been taken up for implementation.

In addition to above BSNL is in process of setting up Wi-Fi Hotspots on revenue share model. The Wi-Fi hotspots are planned to be setup to spread high speed internet access through Wi-Fi connectivity across Public places, Tourist Places and Heritage sites of India. BSNL in partnership has built a world class public Wi-Fi infrastructure for provision of Wi-Fi services. BSNL has already provided Wi-Fi services at various important tourist places and prominent cities like Varanasi Ghats, Taj Mahal-Agra, Hussain Sagar Lake & Charminar -Hyderabad, Sarnath-Varanasi, Sun Temple-Konark, Brihadeshwar Temple-Thanjavur, Hampi- Karnataka, Khajuraho, Jagnnath Temple-Puri, Nasik, Bangalore, Vijaywada, Bilarpur etc.

Till 31 st July 2015 BSNL has launched Wi-Fi services at around 250 Hotspots over 90 locations across 23 cities. About 2500 Hotspots are planned to be set up by BSNL during the year 2015-16.BSNL would be providing free Wi-Fi services, for first 30 minutes in a day for maximum 3 occasions in a month for the same mobile number. After free usage a customer can use the service the on paid basis. BSNL has plans to be Digital Connectivity Partner through Wi-Fi connectivity for Adarsh Gram plan of Govt. of India.

| **Sl.No.**               | **Name of Country**   |                | **Fixed/Wired broadband  penetration 2013**   | **Mobile/wireless  broadband  penetration 2013**   | **Mobile Teledensity 2013**   |
|--------------------------|-----------------------|----------------|-----------------------------------------------|----------------------------------------------------|-------------------------------|
| **Developed countries**  |                       |                |                                               |                                                    |                               |
| 1                        | United States         | United States  | 28.5                                          | 92.8                                               | 97.08                         |
| 2                        | France                | France         | 38.8                                          | 57.1                                               | 98.50                         |
| 3                        | Germany               | Germany        | 34.6                                          | 44.7                                               | 120.92                        |
| 4                        | United Kingdom        | United Kingdom | 35.7                                          | 87.2                                               | 124.61                        |
| 5                        | Japan                 | Japan          | 28.8                                          | 120.5                                              | 116.32                        |
| 6                        | Switzerland           | Switzerland    | 43                                            | 44.3                                               | 136.78                        |
| 7                        | Italy                 | Italy          | 22.3                                          | 64.8                                               | 158.82                        |
| 8                        | Spain                 | Spain          | 25.6                                          | 67.1                                               | 106.89                        |
| 9                        | Netherlands           | Netherlands    | 40.1                                          | 62.3                                               | 116.16                        |
| 10                       | Australia             | Australia      | 25                                            | 110.5                                              | 106.84                        |
| **Developing countries** |                       |                |                                               |                                                    |                               |
| 1                        | China                 | China          | 13.6                                          | 21.4                                               | 88.71                         |
| 2                        | Brazil                | Brazil         | 10.1                                          | 51.5                                               | 135.31                        |
| 3                        | Bangladesh            | Bangladesh     | 0.6                                           | 0.4                                                | 74.43                         |
| 4                        | Nepal                 | Nepal          | 0.8                                           | 13                                                 | 76.85                         |
| 5                        | Malaysia              | Malaysia       | 8.2                                           | 12.5                                               | 144.72                        |
| 6                        | Pakistan              | Pakistan       | 0.6                                           | 0.5                                                | 70.13                         |
| 7                        | Turkey                | Turkey         | 11.2                                          | 32.3                                               | 92.96                         |
| 8                        | Iran (I.R.)           | Iran (I.R.)    | 5.6                                           | 1.2                                                | 84.25                         |
| 9                        | Saudi Arabia          | Saudi Arabia   | 7.3                                           | 49.5                                               | 184.20                        |
| 10                       | India*                | India*         | 1.5                                           | 22.6                                               | 77.94                         |

**Annexure-A**

*India’s figures of Wired Broadband and Wireless broadband are as on 31-03-2015 and Mobile teledensity is as on 30-06-2015

**Annexure-B**

|            |                          |                                                                                       |            |            |
|------------|--------------------------|---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|------------|------------|
| **S. No.** | **Telecom Service Area** | **Internet Subscriber base as on 31st March 2015  (in Millions) as provided by ISPs** |            |            |
|            |                          | **Rural**                                                                             | **Urban**  | **Total**  |
| 1          | Andhra Pradesh           | 8.15                                                                                  | 13.97      | 22.12      |
| 2          | Assam                    | 3.25                                                                                  | 2.23       | 5.47       |
| 3          | Bihar                    | 7.94                                                                                  | 8.64       | 16.59      |
| 4          | Delhi                    | 1.01                                                                                  | 17.49      | 18.50      |
| 5          | Gujarat                  | 7.07                                                                                  | 12.37      | 19.44      |
| 6          | Haryana                  | 3.67                                                                                  | 3.47       | 7.14       |
| 7          | Himachal Pradesh         | 1.64                                                                                  | 0.94       | 2.59       |
| 8          | Jammu & Kashmir          | 1.79                                                                                  | 1.56       | 3.35       |
| 9          | Karnataka                | 6.69                                                                                  | 13.41      | 20.10      |
| 10         | Kerala                   | 6.14                                                                                  | 6.82       | 12.96      |
| 11         | Kolkata                  | 0.42                                                                                  | 7.59       | 8.01       |
| 12         | Madhya Pradesh           | 6.51                                                                                  | 10.12      | 16.63      |
| 13         | Maharashtra              | 9.12                                                                                  | 16.40      | 25.53      |
| 14         | Mumbai                   | 0.25                                                                                  | 14.25      | 14.50      |
| 15         | North East               | 1.92                                                                                  | 1.65       | 3.57       |
| 16         | Orissa                   | 3.52                                                                                  | 3.77       | 7.30       |
| 17         | Punjab                   | 5.23                                                                                  | 7.65       | 12.88      |
| 18         | Rajasthan                | 7.31                                                                                  | 8.47       | 15.79      |
| 19         | Tamil Nadu               | 6.52                                                                                  | 17.62      | 24.14      |
| 20         | UP (East)                | 10.66                                                                                 | 9.73       | 20.38      |
| 21         | UP (West)                | 6.06                                                                                  | 8.14       | 14.19      |
| 22         | West Bengal              | 6.88                                                                                  | 4.31       | 11.19      |
|            | **Total**                | **111.76**                                                                            | **190.60** | **302.35** |

**Private vs PSU ( figures in Million)**

|                | **Wireless**   |             |           | **Wireline**   |             |           | **Grand Total**   |             |           |
|----------------|----------------|-------------|-----------|----------------|-------------|-----------|-------------------|-------------|-----------|
|                | **PSU**        | **Private** | **Total** | **PSU**        | **Private** | **Total** | **PSU**           | **Private** | **Total** |
| **Narrowband** | 10.39          | 189.21      | 199.6     | 3.20           | 0.35        | 3.55      | 13.59             | 189.56      | 203.15    |
| **Broadband**  | 9.31           | 74.37       | 83.68     | 11.12          | 4.40        | 15.52     | 20.43             | 78.78       | 99.20     |
| **TOTAL**      | 19.70          | 263.58      | 283.29    | 14.32          | 4.75        | 19.07     | 34.02             | 268.33      | 302.35    |

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