Lok Sabha Question No. 249 (STARRED), answered on 2016-08-03
Subject: Broadband Services
Ministry: COMMUNICATIONS
Asked by: SANJAY SHAMRAO DHOTRE, JAGDAMBIKA PAL

## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF COMMUNICATIONS DEPARTMENT OF TELECOMMUNICATIONS

## LOK SABHA STARRED QUESTION NO.249 TO BE ANSWERED ON 3 RD  AUGUST, 2016

## BROADBAND SERVICES

- *249.  SHRI SANJAY DHOTRE: SHRI JAGDAMBIKA PAL:

Will the Minister of COMMUNICATIONS be pleased to state:

- (a) whether  some  of  the  service  providers  are  providing  broadband  services  below  the 'Quality of Service Benchmark' particularly in rural areas, and if so, the details thereof;
- (b) the number of such cases reported along with the financial disincentive imposed on such service providers during the last three years and the current year, State/UT and service providerwise;
- (c) whether  the  non-availability  of  broadband  services  or  poor  broadband  services  have adversely  impacted  the  Government's  ambitious  'Digital  India  Programme'  across  the  country and if so, the details thereof; and
- (d) the corrective measures taken by the Government in this regard along with the details of funds granted and released under Bharat net?

## ANSWER

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

- (a) to (d) 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  (d)  OF  LOK    SABHA  STARRED  QUESTION  NO.  249    FOR  3 RD AUGUST,  2016 REGARDING 'BROADBAND SERVICES'.

(a)&(b) Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has laid down the Quality of Service standards for Broadband service and Wireless Data Service through the following regulations:

- (i) Quality of Service of Broadband Service Regulations, 2006 dated 6 th October, 2006.
- (ii) The  Standards  of  Quality  of  Service  for  Wireless  Data  Services  Regulations, 2012 dated 4 th December 2012.

TRAI  monitors  the  performance  of  service  providers  through  Quarterly  Performance Monitoring Reports submitted by service providers for the service area as a whole. No separate information is available for rural areas.

As per the performance monitoring report of TRAI for the quarter ending March 2016 for Broadband services, all the service providers are generally meeting the benchmarks related to the  parameters  for  its  Broadband  services.    Non  Compliance  with  the  benchmarks  is  mainly observed in respect of the parameter 'Response time to the customer for assistance %age of calls answered by the operators (voice to voice) within 90 seconds.'

For ensuring compliance with the Quality of Service benchmarks for Broadband Service, financial disincentives upto Rs. 50,000/- per parameter for first contravention and Rs.1,00,000/for  second  and  subsequent contraventions have been prescribed by TRAI for non-compliance with  the  benchmarks.  TRAI  has  been  imposing  financial  disincentives  on  service  providers  in accordance with these regulations.

TRAI has imposed following  financial  disincentives  during  the  last  three  financial  years and current year:

| Year                  |   2013-14 |   2014-15 |   2015-16 |   2016-17 |
|-----------------------|-----------|-----------|-----------|-----------|
| Amount (in Rs. Lakhs) |        51 |      52.5 |        33 |        10 |

State/ UT wise details of financial disincentives are not maintained by TRAI. However, the operator-wise details of financial disincentives imposed by TRAI on various service provider are enclosed at Annexure-I .

(c)&(d) Under  Digital  India  Programme,  inter-alia  to  improve  availability  of  Broadband Services, National Optical Fibre Network (NOFN) project, renamed as BharatNet, is planned to establish a network infrastructure by connecting all Gram Panchayats (approx. 2.5 lakh) in the country by using an optimal mix of underground fibre, fibre over power lines, radio and satellite media  for  providing  broadband  connectivity  by  all  categories  of  service  providers  on  nondiscriminatory basis.

The  project  is  planned  to  be  implemented  in  three  phases.  Under  first  phase  of  the project,  1  lakh  Gram  Panchayats  (GPs)  are  to  be  connected  by  laying  underground  OFC  by March 2017. Under second phase, connectivity will be provided to remaining 1.5 lakh GPs in the country  using  an  optimal  mix  of  underground  fibre,  fibre  over  power  lines,  radio  and  satellite media  by  December,  2018.  Third  phase  will  cover  fibre  between  districts  and  blocks  with underground OFC in ring architecture for a state-of-the-art, future-proof network for 5G services and Internet of Things (IoT) era. As on 16.07.2016, Optical Fibre Cable (OFC) has been laid to 54,635 Gram Panchayats (GPs) with a total length of 1,26,853 km. Out of these, 7342 GPs have been provided with broadband connectivity.

As against the sanctioned amount of Rs. 20,100 crore under Universal Service Obligation Fund (USOF), funds to the tune of Rs. 5741.79 crore have been utilized till 30.06.2016

************

## Annexure-I

## Operator-wise details of financial disincentives imposed on various service providers [in Lakhs]

|                                               | Fiancial Year   | Fiancial Year   | Fiancial Year   | Fiancial Year            | Fiancial Year   |
|-----------------------------------------------|-----------------|-----------------|-----------------|--------------------------|-----------------|
| Name of service provider                      | 2013-14         | 14-15           | 15-16           | 16-17 (till 27.07. 2016) | Total           |
| Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd.                | 8               | 10              |                 |                          | 18              |
| Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd.                     | 8.5             | 7               |                 |                          | 15.5            |
| Tikona Digital Networks Pvt. Ltd.             | 1.5             |                 |                 |                          | 1.5             |
| Five Network Solution (India) Ltd.            | 1               |                 |                 |                          | 1               |
| Atria Convergence Technologies Pvt. Ltd.      | 7               | 10              | 5               | 2                        | 24              |
| Sify Technologies Ltd.                        | 4.5             |                 |                 |                          | 4.5             |
| Beam Telecom Pvt. Ltd.                        | 2               | 4               |                 |                          | 6               |
| Induslnd Media & Communications Ltd.          | 1               |                 |                 |                          | 1               |
| Syscon Infoway Pvt Ltd                        | 1.5             | 1               |                 |                          | 2.5             |
| Tata Communications Ltd.                      | 5               | 1.5             | 0.5             | 1.5                      | 8.5             |
| You Broadband & Cable India Pvt. Ltd.         | 9.5             | 3               | 1               |                          | 13.5            |
| Southern Online Bio Technologies Ltd          | 0.5             |                 |                 |                          | 0.5             |
| Hathway Cables & Data Services Ltd.           | 0.5             | 2               | 0.5             |                          | 3               |
| Broadband Pacenet (India) Pvt. Ltd.           | 0.5             | 2.5             |                 |                          | 3               |
| Siti Cable Network Limited                    |                 | 0.5             |                 |                          | 0.5             |
| Asianet Satellite Communications Ltd.         |                 | 2               |                 |                          | 2               |
| Rajesh Multi-channel Pvt. Ltd.                |                 | 6               |                 |                          | 6               |
| Smartlink Broadband Services Pvt. Ltd.        |                 | 1.5             | 2               |                          | 3.5             |
| Tata Teleservices Ltd.*                       |                 | 1.5             | 6.5             | 2                        | 10              |
| Meghbela Cable & Broadband Services Pvt. Ltd. |                 |                 | 1               |                          | 1               |
| Honesty Net Solutions (India) Pvt. Ltd        |                 |                 | 1.5             |                          | 1.5             |
| Bharti Airtel Ltd.*                           |                 |                 | 15              | 4                        | 19              |
| DEN Networks Limited                          |                 |                 |                 | 0.5                      | 0.5             |
| Total                                         | 51              | 52.5            | 33              | 10                       | 146.5           |