50,000 villages yet to get mobile network

Around 50,000 villages in the country are yet to get mobile network, the Government informed Lok Sabha on Wednesday.  

“There are around 50,000 villages mostly in Northeast, Naxal-hit states, Andaman and Nicobar Islands and Lakshadweep where mobile network has not reached yet”, Telecom Minister Manoj Sinha said during question hour.

The Department of Telecom also written the state governments to inform the Centre identifying the villages which have not got mobile network, so that the government can expedite the works, the Minister said.

The Minister also said 'BharatNet' is being implemented for providing 100 mbps broadband connectivity to all Gram Panchayats, approximately 2,50,000, in the country. The phase-I to connect 1,00,000 GPs is being implemented currently, he said.

"As on March 31, 2017, trenching and ducting has been completed for 11,294 km (4,780 GPs), Optical Fibre Cable has been laid for 12,172 km (4,213 GPs) and 443 GPs have been provided with broadband connectivity," he added.

The Minister also clarified that there is no plans before the government to offer shares of BSNL to its employees and the company is making operating profit in last two years.