GOVERNMENT OF INDIA |
Ministry of Communication and IT |
DEPARTMENT OF TELECOMMUNICATIONS
|
RAJYA SABHA |
UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 2129 |
TO BE ANSWERED ON 23RD JULY, 2009 |
Broadband Facilities to Rural Areas. |
2129. |
SHRI RAJEEV CHANDRASEKHAR |
|
|
Will the Minister of COMMUNICATIONS AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY be pleased to state:-
(a) whether the present broadband penetration in India stands at a meager 2.6 per cent with even lower figure for rural areas;
(b) whether BSNL with over 73 percent of the available optical fiber route KM network has more than 32000 of its telephone exchanges connected by fiber;
(c) if so, whether the wireless technology can deliver broadband facilities to rural areas from these fiber terminal exchanges; and
(d) if so; the details thereof?
ANSWER
THE MINISTER OF STATE IN THE MINISTRY OF COMMUNICATIONS AND
INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY
(SHRI GURUDAS KAMAT)
(a) As on 31 May 2009, about 64 lakh broadband connections including about 3 lakh rural broadband connections have been provided in the country. BSNL has provided 3 lakh rural broadband connections out of a total of about 1.04 crore Rural Direct Exchange Lines (RDELs) representing the penetration of about 2.9% in rural areas.
(b)to (d) Yes, Sir. For delivering broadband facilities in rural area, BSNL has planned to provide Broadband connectivity in 63,000 Rural Common Service Centres covering 7863 Rural Blocks through WiMAX & 3 G (GSM) technologies using optical fibre network in a phased manner. BSNL has also planned to build a capacity of about 32.9 lakh connections on 3G network having broadband capabilities.