The government has informed the parliament that a total of 41,160 mobile towers have been sanctioned with an outlay of Rs 413.31 billion to provide 4G connectivity to about 55,000 villages.
In a written reply to the Rajya Sabha, Devusinh Chauhan, Union Minister of State for Communications, stated that within a span of 14 months, more than 415,000 5G sites are providing connectivity across 742 districts in the country. He noted that this is the fastest rollout of 5G anywhere in the world. Additionally, Chauhan informed that telecom connectivity in India has improved significantly in the last 10 years, adding that the government is implementing various schemes to further improve telecom connectivity in the country.
In his response, the minister noted that the scope of the BharatNet program has been expanded to connect all inhabited villages with an outlay of Rs 1.88 trillion. The number of gram panchayats connected under the BharatNet project has increased from 58 to 210,000 between May 2014 and December 2023.
As per the data shared by the minister, the number of base transceiver stations increased from 649,000 in May 2014 to 2.8 million in December 2023. Optical fibre laid increased from 1.06 million km in May 2014 to 3.9 million km in December 2023. Meanwhile, the number of internet users has increased from 251.5 million in May 2014 to 881.2 million in December 2023. The cost of data has decreased from Rs 269 per GB in May 2014 to Rs 9.94 per GB in December 2023, while the median internet speed has increased from 1.3 Mbps to 75.8 Mbps during the period.
