Parliament Question: Strengthening mobile connectivity in rural areas

GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF COMMUNICATIONS DEPARTMENT OF TELECOMMUNICATIONS RAJYA SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 4330 TO BE ANSWERED ON 02ND APRIL, 2026 STRENGTHENING MOBILE CONNECTIVITY IN RURAL AREAS 4330 SHRI MASTHAN RAO YADAV BEEDHA: Will the Minister of Communications be pleased to state: (a) the number of mobile towers established during the last five years to improve telecom connectivity in rural and remote areas, State-wise; (b) the measures undertaken to enhance mobile and broadband connectivity in rural areas, particularly in backward and aspirational districts of Andhra Pradesh; (c) the steps taken to strengthen mobile connectivity and network resilience in disaster-prone and vulnerable regions to ensure uninterrupted communication during emergencies; and (d) the scheme-wise and year-wise details of funds allocated, sanctioned, released and utilised for expansion and upgradation of rural mobile connectivity infrastructure during the last five years? ANSWER MINISTER OF STATE FOR COMMUNICATIONS AND RURAL DEVELOPMENT (DR. PEMMASANI CHANDRA SEKHAR) (a) The State-wise details of the number of mobile towers established during the last five years are attached as Annexure-I. (b) Several projects have been taken up with funding from Digital Bharat Nidhi (DBN) to enhance mobile and broadband connectivity in rural areas, particularly in backward and aspirational districts of Andhra Pradesh. The status of major projects is summarized below. S.N Name of Project No. of villages No. of villages (out of targeted for 4G villages mentioned at coverage in Andhra column 3) covered with Pradesh 4G network as on 28.02.2026 in Andhra Pradesh 1 2 3 4 (i) 7287 Aspirational 1019 913 Project (ii) 4G Saturation Project 2596 2289 Total 3615 3202 As part of BharatNet project, Optical fiber connectivity to all Gram Panchayats (GPs) is planned in the state of Andhra Pradesh under Bharat Net Phase-I and Phase-II to enable the villagers to utilize the high speed broadband/internet connectivity and status is as furnished below: 1BharatNet Planned Service Ready Phase-I 1,681 1,681 Phase-II 11,806 11,274 Total 13,487 12,955 (c) As a step towards strengthening the uninterrupted telecommunication services, a Standard Operating Procedure for telecommunication services during disasters has been issued by the Department. As per the SOP, License Service Area (LSA) offices of DoT conduct State Telecom Disaster Coordination Committee (STDCC) meetings with Telecom Service Providers (TSPs), State Government authorities and NDRF to assess preparedness and coordinate necessary actions. Uninterrupted communication during emergencies is supported through Priority Call Routing (PCR), Intra-Circle Roaming (ICR) and rapid restoration measures such as deployment of Cell on Wheels (COWs) BTS, emergency Optical Fiber Cable (OFC) repair teams and activation of disaster control rooms. (d) Fund of ₹12,122.73 crore have been disbursed during last five financial years (2020-21 to 2024-25) under various mobile projects of Digital Bharat Nidhi to provide telecom services in rural and remote areas of the country. The scheme-wise and year-wise details is enclosed herewith as Annexure-II. 2Annexure-I State-wise details of the number of mobile towers established during the last five years are mentioned below: As on As on As on As on As on As on State/UT 28.02.2026 31.03.2025 31.03.2024 31.03.2023 31.03.2022 31.03.2021 Andaman & 496 442 401 357 329 260 Nicobar (UT) Andhra Pradesh 30523 28825 27960 26401 24880 23436 Arunachal Pradesh 2582 2226 2023 1676 1401 1191 Assam 19697 19197 18793 17803 16502 14443 Bihar 46641 45579 44497 41712 38509 33134 Chandigarh (UT) 1212 1224 1232 1197 1177 1143 Chattisgarh 18500 17516 16129 15430 14572 12898 Delhi 25879 25270 24790 23923 22314 19639 Goa 1783 1741 1715 1684 1573 1514 Gujarat 51668 49244 46638 44317 42530 39758 Haryana 27208 26573 25716 24521 22707 20545 Himachal Pradesh 10131 9683 9289 8957 8331 7714 Jammu & Kashmir 12293 11738 11559 10977 10218 9561 Jharkhand 23607 22959 22349 21237 19899 16747 Karnataka 51534 49976 49643 47818 44970 42278 Kerala 24909 23890 22140 20863 19966 18836 Laddakh 851 657 609 564 471 389 Lakshadweep 57 41 37 34 33 32 (UT) Madhya Pradesh 45250 43470 40804 38667 37285 35169 Maharashtra 90351 86170 83233 79053 75420 67669 Manipur 2772 2676 2656 2635 2453 2222 Meghalaya 2673 2522 2465 2324 2152 1784 Mizoram 1384 1363 1340 1288 1138 1008 Nagaland 2004 1747 1697 1609 1506 1377 Odisha 32040 30083 28186 25595 23506 21082 Puducherry (UT) 832 816 800 749 716 672 Punjab 24945 24520 24200 23370 22061 21006 Rajasthan 45991 44529 43768 40481 38038 35166 Sikkim 792 757 760 751 704 635 Tamilnadu 51082 50164 49398 47071 45516 43660 Telangana 31514 30796 30122 28655 27272 25097 Tripura 2783 2687 2663 2577 2438 2217 UT of Dadra and Nagar Haveli and 578 525 488 458 433 410 Daman and Diu Uttar Pradesh 104521 101218 97590 91383 84542 74284 Uttarakhand 10833 10487 9880 9387 8847 7930 West Bengal 53902 52969 51201 48543 45631 40908 Grand Total 853818 824280 796771 754067 710040 645814 3Annexure-II Scheme-wise and Year-wise details of fund disbursed under various Mobile Projects of Digital Bharat Nidhi (DBN) during last five financial years (2020-21 to 2024-25) Sl. (Amount in ₹crore) No Name of Schemes 2020-21 2021-22 2022-23 2023-24 2024-25 Total . 1 Provision of Mobile Services 0.52 36.07 127.00 29.63 33.21 226.43 in 354 Uncovered villages of Border States 2 4G Mobile Services 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 6.53 6.53 Lakshadweep 3 4G Saturation Mobile Project 0.00 0.00 938.48 3,542.27 3,253.34 7,734.09 4 Provision of Mobile Services 0.00 4.86 37.35 38.59 44.90 125.70 in 502 Uncovered villages of Aspirational Districts 5 Provision of Mobile Services 0.00 0.00 8.34 326.49 747.71 1082.54 in 7287 Uncovered villages of Aspirational Districts 6 Border Out Post / Border 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 5.30 5.30 Intelligence Post (BOP-BIP) Project Provision of Mobile Services 7 in Left Wing Extremism 305.03 400.39 422.10 42.07 0.00 1169.60 Affected Areas (LWE Phase-I) (including extension of O&M and Upgradation of sites from 2G to 4G) 8 Provision of Mobile Services 0.00 0.00 125.15 245.33 210.91 581.40 in Left Wing Extremism Affected Areas (LWE Phase- II) 9 Provision of Mobile Services 0.00 0.00 0.60 3.32 33.78 37.70 in Andaman Nicobar Islands 10 Provision of Mobile Services 0.00 0.00 36.03 148.06 116.06 300.14 in uncovered villages of Arunachal Pradesh and Two District of Assam 11 Mobile Services in 0.00 0.00 146.78 40.18 46.49 233.45 Meghalaya 12 Provision of Mobile Services 280.78 26.00 6.87 173.00 123.23 609.87 in uncovered villages of Assam, Sikkim and other areas of NER (BHL & BAL) 13 Installation of Ten 2G EDGE 9.21 0.78 0.00 0.00 0.00 9.99 BTS in Lakshadweep Grand Total 595.53 468.11 1,848.70 4,588.93 4,621.47 12,122.73 *** 4