India has plans to reach 600 million broadband connections as per National Telecom Policy 2012 says Minister for Communications Manoj Sinha.
Manoj Sinha said, “As per information provided by Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI), there were 422.19 million broadband subscribers and the internet penetration was 32.86% in the country as on March 31, 2017.”
In a written reply to a question in the Rajya Sabha, Manoj Sinha said that the National Telecom Policy 2012 envisages 600 million broadband connections by the year 2020.
To increase broadband penetration in the country, the government is implementing BharatNet project to provide 100 Mbps broadband connectivity to all gram panchayats in the country.
Under first phase of the project, one lakh gram panchayats are to be connected by laying underground optical fibre cable (OFC) which is under implementation. Under phase-II, targeted to be completed by March 2019, connectivity will be provided to remaining 1.5 lakh gram panchayats in the country using an optimal mix of underground fibre, fibre over power lines, radio and satellite media.
The minister said that the provision of last mile access to the network and broadband service provisioning shall be through Wi-Fi or any other broadband access technologies in all 250,000 gram panchayats in the country.
As on July 23, 2017, broadband connectivity is provided in 25,426 gram panchayats, OFC is laid in 100,200 gram panchayats and 221,925 Km OFC is laid in gram panchayats throughout the country.
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