Data consumption in rural areas increased by 400 per cent in the past one year, says government

According to the government, data consumption in rural areas has increased by 400 per cent in the past one year.

Further, it added that the government’s initiative to provide Wi-Fi hotspots and fibre-to-the-home (FTTH) connections in rural areas has also garnered more than 1.3 million Wi-Fi registered users. Meanwhile, over two million household subscribers are set to benefit from high-speed broadband connections by December 2021. Further, data consumption through the BharatNet optical fibre, operated and maintained by the government’s common service centres (CSCs) in nearly 100,000 panchayats surpassed 13,000 terabytes (TB) till June 2021. This is an increase from 6,000 TB in 2020 and 300-400 TB in July 2019, the data showed.Under the first phase of BharatNet, 115,000 panchayats were to be connected, of which CSCs have successfully connected 98,000 panchayats with BharatNetfibre within one year of taking over as the operations and maintenance agency.The village-level entrepreneur manning the CSC is responsible for connecting the last-mile fibre in the area to the nearby government, healthcare and educational facilities.The entrepreneur also extends the internet through Wi-Fi hotspots and FTH connections to the village residents.

Further, more than 450,000 subscribers have been registered, including more than 325,000 users comprising government institutions such as remote police stations, gram panchayat offices, post offices, Anganwadi centres, PDS shops, and primary health centres.The CSC Wi-Fi Choupal also has more than 1.3 million subscribers who use this to supplement their mobile data connections.