The Parliament was informed on Wednesday that the country now has a total of 115.12 crore mobile subscriptions.
The Minister of State of Communications and Rural Development, Dr. Chandra Sekhar Pemmasani informed Lok Sabha in a written reply, “Out of 6,44,131 villages in the country, around 6,23,622 villages now have mobile coverage.”
He also added that mobile coverage for inhabited uncovered villages is provided by the government and the telecom service providers in a phased manner.
Furthermore, the government is implementing various schemes and projects under Digital Bharat Nidhi (DBN). The minister said that they will expand telecom connectivity by installing mobile towers in rural and hilly areas of the country.
The BharatNet project, funded by Digital Bharat Nidhi, implements broadband connectivity in a phased manner to provide coverage to all Gram Panchayats in the country.
The Cabinet approved the amended BharatNet Programme to upgrade the existing network of BharatNet Phase-I and Phase-II. This creation of the network is remaining in nearly 42,000-gram panchayats, operation and maintenance for 10 years and utilisation at the total cost of Rs 1,39,579 crores, said Dr Pemmasani.
Last week, the government announced that mobile network coverage in rural India has nearly reached 97%, with 6,14,564 villages now connected to 4G services.
In response to a question in the Rajya Sabha, Dr Pemmasani stated that the Ministry of Tribal Affairs identified 4,543 habitations of particularly vulnerable tribal groups (PVTG) as lacking mobile coverage under the Pradhan Mantri Janjati Adivasi Nyaya Maha Abhiyan (PM JANMAN) initiative. Of these, 1,136 PVTG habitations have now been provided with mobile connectivity.
Additionally, 5G services are now available in 779 out of 783 districts across the country, as of October 31. The minister also highlighted that the country has installed over 4.6 lakh 5G Base Transceiver Stations (BTS).
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