Over 37,000 villages did not have access to mobile services in March 2011: Deora

Milind Deora, Minister of State for Communications and IT has told the Parliament that over 37,000 villages in the country did not have access to mobile telephony, as of March 2011.

As of July 31, 2011, Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) has extended its GSM footprint to all district headquarters and 33,620 cities and towns.

Deora also mentioned the shared mobile infrastructure scheme launched by the Universal Service Obligation (USO) Fund to provide subsidy support for setting up and managing 7,353 infrastructure sites/towers (revised from 7,871) in 500 districts, spread over 27 states, to facilitate mobile services in remote areas.

He added that as of August 31, 2011, about 5,79,486 villages have been provided with telephone connectivity through village telephones (VPTs).