- Telecom Minister says national broadband mission of 2019 is to ensure broadband connectivity to all villages by 2022.
- India’s broadband connections grow 10 times from 65m in 2014 to 673m in January 2020.
- Timeline for the second phase of BharatNet project extended due to lockdown and Covid-19.
Bengaluru: India plans to connect six lakh villages with optical fibre in the next 1,000 days as part of the national broadband mission, Minister of State for Communications said.
Speaking at a webinar, Sanjay Dhotre said that the national broadband mission of 2019 is to ensure broadband connectivity to all villages by 2022 with an investment of Rs7 lakh crore from stakeholders.
“We have created a massive digital infrastructure to take India to the next level and it is structured on three principles – quality, affordability and usability. To take the digital revolution into the rural heartland, the government has envisioned connecting about 2.5 lakh Gram Panchayats with broadband connectivity,” he said.
India’s internet connections grew by more than 150 per cent and broadband connections grew 10 times from 65 million in 2014 to 673 million in January 2020.
Digital India
Between 2014 and 2019, Dhotre said that more data was accessed through 4G networks and India has one of the cheapest data rates globally and one of the highest per data consumption.
“Digital India” slogan was initiated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in 2015.
“All the digital progress will not be possible with a strong telecom and mobile ecosystem. The mobile connections rose from 910 million in 2014 to 1,156 million in 2020 and millions of smartphones came into the people of India,” he said.
The timeline for the second phase of BharatNet project, slated to be completed by August 2021, is now extended due to lockdown and Covid-19.
Bridging digital divide
As of September this year, about 23,133 Gram Panchayats have been made service ready and 1.47 lakh kilometres of optical fibre cable has been laid under the second phase.
The national mission aims to accelerate the growth of digital infrastructure, bridge the digital divide and provide affordable and universal access of broadband to 1.3 billion Indians.
“The new emerging technologies such as 5G, M2M and AI need to be supported for an accelerating transition so that we are not left behind in the fourth industrial revolution. Tremendous opportunities lie ahead of us for application of these technologies in various sectors such as agriculture, education, e-commerce, urban development, logistics and transportation,” Dhotre said.
However, he said that these new generation technologies are knocking on the doors but “we must see their use in the Indian context, ensuring more inclusiveness and assisting our people to solve their problems and at the same time, we must also think of developing technology products which can have strong export potential.”