Parliament Question: Internet facility in Andhra Pradesh

GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF COMMUNICATIONS DEPARTMENT OF TELECOMMUNICATIONS RAJYA SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 2253 TO BE ANSWERED ON 12TH MARCH, 2026 INTERNET FACILITY IN ANDHRA PRADESH 2253 SHRI GOLLA BABURAO: Will the Minister of Communications be pleased to state: (a) whether only 26 per cent in rural and 14 per cent in urban areas in Andhra Pradesh have internet facility within household premises; (b) if so, whether above figures indicate that there is still a long way to achieve universal access to internet; (c) if so, the details of funding that Government set aside from Digital Bharat Nidhi, etc. , since its launch and spent till February 2026, year-wise and State-wise; (d) whether any timelines have been fixed for universal rollout of fixed-line broadband/internet access in rural and urban areas; and (e) if so, the details thereof? ANSWER MINISTER OF STATE FOR COMMUNICATIONS AND RURAL DEVELOPMENT (DR. PEMMASANI CHANDRA SEKHAR) (a) & (b) The Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MoSPI), conducted a Comprehensive Modular Survey: Telecom (CMS: Telecom) during January to March 2025. As per the results of the survey, percentage of households with internet facility within household premises, for Andhra Pradesh are as below. State Rural Urban Total Andhra Pradesh 73.3 85.4 77.7 All India 83.3 91.6 86.3 (c) Till 28.02.2026, Government has disbursed a total of Rs 95,225 crore under Digital Bharat Nidhi since its inception. These funds are utilised to provide telecom services in rural and remote areas of the Country including in Andhra Pradesh. The Year-wise and State-wise details are given in Annexure -I and II respectively. (d) & (e) Government is implementing BharatNet project in a phased manner to provide broadband connectivity to all the Gram Panchayats (GPs) and villages in the country. As of Feb- 2026, 2,17,805 GPs in the country have been made service ready. Further, Government has approved Amended BharatNet Program (ABP) for up-gradation of existing network of BharatNet Phase-I and Phase-II, creation of network in balance GPs, Operation and Maintenance for 10 years, utilization and connectivity to remaining non-GP villages on demand basis from their respective GPs. The infrastructure thus created, along with the efforts of service providers is expected to make high speed broadband accessible to all citizens of the country. 1Annexure-I Annexure referred to reply to part (c) of Rajya Sabha Unstarred Question no. 2253 answered on 12th March 2026 regarding “Internet facility in Andhra Pradesh’’ Year-wise details of Fund disbursed under Digital Bharat Nidhi as on 28.02.2026 (Rs. in crores) Financial Year Fund disbursed 2002-03 300 2003-04 200 2004-05 1,315 2005-06 1,767 2006-07 1,500 2007-08 1,290 2008-09 8,549 2009-10 2,400 2010-11 3,100 2011-12 1,688 2012-13 625 2013-14 2,163 2014-15 2,087 2015-16 3,100 2016-17 7,227 2017-18 6,999 2018-19 4,788 2019-20 2,926 2020-21 7,200 2021-22 8,300 2022-23 3,500 2023-24 8,380 2024-25 8,798 2025-26 7,023 Total 95,225 2Annexure-II Annexure referred to reply to part (c) of Rajya Sabha Unstarred Question no. 2253 answered on 12th March 2026 regarding “Internet facility in Andhra Pradesh’’ State-wise funds allocated / disbursed under Digital Bharat Nidhi as on 28.02.2026 (Rs. in crores) Sl. No. Name of State/UT Funds disbursed 1 Andaman & Nicobar 1,307 2 Andhra Pradesh 3,940 3 Assam 1,217 4 Bihar 3,032 5 Chhattisgarh 4,806 6 Gujrat (Dadar Nagar Haveli and Daman & Diu) 5,063 7 Haryana 1,005 8 Himachal Pradesh 875 9 Jammu & Kashmir (including Ladakh) 1,143 10 Jharkhand 3,313 11 Karnataka 3,117 12 Kerala 1,130 13 Lakshadweep 1,003 14 Madhya Pradesh 6,645 15 Maharashtra (including Goa) 9,072 16 NE-I (Meghalaya, Mizoram and Tripura) 978 17 NE-II (Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur and 1,903 Nagaland) 18 Odisha 4,301 19 Punjab 2,110 20 Rajasthan 3,823 21 Tamil Nadu 1,883 22 Telangana 2,579 23 Uttar Pradesh 7,823 24 Uttarakhand 1,108 25 West Bengal (including Sikkim) 1,520 26 Puducherry 14 27 Centrally Disbursed 20,514 28 Grand Total 95,225 Note: Fund disbursed under ABP for different packages are included in respective States/UT like amount of Ladakh included in J&K, Amount for Goa and Puducherry included in Karnataka, Amount for Dadar and Nagar Haveli, Daman & Diu included in Madhya Pradesh and Amount for A&N included in West Bengal. ****** 3