According to the Department of Telecommunications (DoT), at the end of July 2013, rural teledensity stood at 41.64 per cent, compared to urban teledensity of 146 per cent. In fact, the poor teledensity in rural areas is likely to impact the government?s target to increase the country?s broadband user base from 16 million in 2013 to 175 million by 2017.
The lack of telecom services in rural areas, which accounts for 70 per cent of the country?s population is a major cause of concern for the government. Despite the governments? efforts to expand telecom services to rural areas, the digital divide between urban and the rural areas is widening.
The DoT has attributed the growing digital divide and low rural teledensity to various factors such as higher telecom infrastructure rollout costs in rural markets, low average revenue per user, limited optical fibre network and the low level of income amongst rural people.
Going forward, the government is making efforts to provide telecom services to uncovered villages by expanding Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited?s network. In addition, it is also looking forward to partner with the private operators to offer subsidised handsets and lower tariff plans to villagers.
