Union Minister of Communications and Development of North Eastern Region, Shri Jyotiraditya Scindia while responding to questions in the Lok Sabha today, highlighted the government’s commitment to extend connectivity to all parts of the country, including the remotest areas.

Empowering the First Villages of the Ashtalakshmi States

Addressing connectivity challenges in the Northeast, Union Minister Shri Scindia specifically mentioned remote regions such as Vijaynagar in Arunachal Pradesh. He said that Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi has transformed the mindset from viewing the “last villages” to recognizing them as “India’s first villages” under the Vibrant Village Programme. The government remains fully committed to digitally empowering these regions.

He also spoke about working in coordination with the Chief Minister of Arunachal Pradesh and the Member concerned of Parliament to address environmental and geographical challenges, including those related to wildlife sanctuary and Right of Way (RoW) issues.

Dr Chandra Sekhar Pemmasani, Minister of State for Rural Development and Communications, while replying to a supplementary question, said that India has achieved near-universal 4G coverage across its villages and is witnessing one of the fastest 5G rollouts globally. He informed that out of nearly 6,40,000 villages in the country, about 6,31,000 villages have been covered with 4G services by both private operators and BSNL. The remaining 10,000 villages are being covered under ongoing 4G saturation projects and are expected to be connected in the coming months.

Dr Pemmasani further stated that BSNL has deployed 1,00,000 towers using indigenous technology, particularly in areas where private players find limited techno-commercial viability. The Minister also noted that approximately 5,00,000 villages have already been covered with 5G services, marking one of the fastest 5G rollouts in the world.

Following details were also given in a written reply:

During the last three financial years (from 1.4.2022 to 31.3.2025), 8,50,284 route kilometres of optical fibre cable (OFC) were laid. State-wise details are as under:

S. no.	State / Union territory	OFC laid during the last three financial years (from 1.4.2022 to 31.3.2025), in route kilometers	Total OFC laid (as of 31.12.2025), in route kilometers
1	Andaman and Nicobar Islands	390	1,544
2	Andhra Pradesh	81,307	2,51,753
3	Arunachal Pradesh	2,627	9,913
4	Assam	27,523	93,234
5	Bihar	17,210	1,29,992
6	Chandigarh	2,073	24,763
7	Chhattisgarh	18,399	1,18,793
8	Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu	217	1,328
9	Delhi	10,830	77,409
10	Goa	648	5,065
11	Gujarat	24,235	2,90,429
12	Haryana	8,253	83,932
13	Himachal Pradesh	5,802	35,787
14	Jammu and Kashmir	10,809	44,479
15	Jharkhand	16,720	82,034
16	Karnataka	27,629	2,26,763
17	Kerala	88,591	2,59,252
18	Ladakh	1,209	5,663
19	Lakshadweep	20	59
20	Madhya Pradesh	30,374	2,63,453
21	Maharashtra	70,178	4,06,637
22	Manipur	2,500	10,499
23	Meghalaya	3,580	11,952
24	Mizoram	1,718	8,332
25	Nagaland	2,277	10,057
26	Odisha	26,406	1,56,298
27	Puducherry	137	138
28	Punjab	60,654	1,97,105
29	Rajasthan	45,058	2,39,458
30	Sikkim	474	4,827
31	Tamil Nadu	1,02,865	3,08,907
32	Telangana	65,691	2,37,946
33	Tripura	1,460	11,294
34	Uttar Pradesh	55,672	4,06,697
35	Uttarakhand	9,428	50,178
36	West Bengal	27,320	1,87,364
	Total	8,50,284	42,53,334

Details of measurable improvements across the country are as follows:

1. 1. Mobile broadband speed: Average mobile broadband download speed has increased from 13.67 Mbps in March 2022 to 132.00 Mbps in December 2025 as per Ookla’s global speedtest index.
   2. Network reliability: As per the report of the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) for December 2025, all Telecom Service Providers (TSPs) met all Quality of Service (QoS) benchmarks for network-related parameters for the 4G/5G network.
   3. 4G/5G readiness: The number of the 4G/5G Base Transceiver Stations (BTSs) increased by 51.33% from 16.91 lakh as on 31.3.2022 to 25.59 lakh as on 31.12.2025. State-wise details are at Annexure-II. 
   4. Latency: As per TRAI report, latency in September 2025 is less than 75 milliseconds and the cumulative downtime (cells not available for service) is within the specified limits of less than 2%.

        The above information is for the whole country, including Karnataka and Bengaluru. 

District-wise details of OFC connected and service-ready Gram Panchayats under BharatNet, in rural areas and border-touching areas, including Bulandshahr district and the Bhiwani Mahendergarh Lok Sabha constituency, are available at the Department of Telecommunications website

(https://www.dot.gov.in/static/uploads/2026/02/1f908efb879806628e9f32bf4b966c30.pdf).

 In Palghar district in Maharashtra, 4,830 route kilometres of OFC have been laid. Broadband speed and network reliability may be temporarily impacted due to OFC cuts during road widening work, pipeline work and public utility works carried out by local municipal authorities. 

The expansion of OFC connectivity in rural areas has significantly facilitated adoption of digital services across the country. The availability of high-speed broadband has strengthened service delivery and accessibility, allowing citizens in rural and remote areas to access Government services through Common Service Centres (CSCs), online portals and digital platforms. The status of some of the key e-governance initiatives is as follows:

1. Aadhaar is the world’s largest digital identity system that provides biometric and demographic data based unique digital identity. Over 143 crore Aadhaar numbers have been generated so far. 
2. DigiLocker has enabled access on anytime, anywhere basis to authenticate digital documents from the original issuer for the common citizen. More than 65.01 crore users are registered with DigiLocker to avail of its services. 
3. The Unified Mobile Application for New-age Governance (UMANG) mobile application for all government services is operational and offers over 2,390 services for individuals. It has witnessed cumulative 726.43 crore transactions. 
4. CSCs are offering government and business services in the assisted digital mode. Over 800 services are being delivered through CSCs. As of December 2025, 5.87 lakh CSCs were functional across the country, in both rural and urban areas, of which 4.57 lakh were functional at the Gram Panchayat level in rural areas. 
5. Pradhan Mantri Gramin Digital Saksharta Abhiyan (PMGDISHA), which was initiated to reach functional digital literacy in 6 crore rural households (one person per household) nationwide, has reached 6.39 crore individuals. 
6. During the financial year 2024-25, total digital payments transactions were 23,834 crore. The number of such transactions in the current financial year, till 4.2.2026, is 20,856 crore.

Due to expanded OFC connectivity under BharatNet Project, a total of 2,14,904 Gram Panchayats have been made service-ready, as of 31.12.2025. Further, out of 6,44,131 villages in the country (village data as per the office of the Registrar General of India), around 6,34,955 villages are covered with mobile connectivity, including 6,31,834 villages having 4G mobile connectivity. Thus, 98.09% villages have access to internet. 

 As of 30.9.2025, out of a total of 101.78 crore internet subscribers in India, 42.77 crore are rural subscribers and 59.01 crore are urban subscribers. 

Annexure-II

 

S. no.	State/ Union territory	4G/5G Base Transceiver Stations (BTSs), as on 31.3.2022	4G/5G Base Transceiver Stations (BTSs), as on 31.12.2025
1	Andaman & Nicobar	399	987
2	Andhra Pradesh	58,722	91,588
3	Arunachal Pradesh	2,595	5,060
4	Assam	38,622	56,327
5	Bihar	78,755	1,26,048
6	Chandigarh	2,512	3,624
7	Chhattisgarh	32,489	49,481
8	Delhi	49,116	68,077
9	Goa	3,903	5,929
10	Gujarat	1,04,209	1,57,413
11	Haryana	54,071	83,571
12	Himachal Pradesh	17,902	27,087
13	Jammu & Kashmir	25,113	37,180
14	Jharkhand	36,532	54,584
15	Karnataka	1,09,796	1,56,930
16	Kerala	60,955	98,413
17	Ladakh	732	1,625
18	Lakshadweep	14	64
19	Madhya Pradesh	86,955	1,30,782
20	Maharashtra	1,78,661	2,69,542
21	Manipur	5,104	7,281
22	Meghalaya	5,020	6,903
23	Mizoram	2,435	3,436
24	Nagaland	3,596	5,205
25	Odisha	52,082	83,767
26	Puducherry	1,704	2,938
27	Punjab	55,366	83,308
28	Rajasthan	91,620	1,42,644
29	Sikkim	1,712	2,187
30	Tamil Nadu	1,11,698	1,72,584
31	Telangana	64,864	94,612
32	Tripura	5,577	8,052
33	Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu	1,219	1,906
34	Uttar Pradesh	2,13,702	3,21,123
35	Uttarakhand	21,981	32,500
36	West Bengal	1,11,571	1,66,946
Grand Total		16,91,304	25,59,704

 

आदरणीय प्रधानमंत्री श्री @narendramodi जी के नेतृत्व में @DoT_India और @MDoNER_India दोनों मिलकर हमारे अष्टलक्ष्मी राज्यों के हर गांव तक तेज इंटरनेट सेवा पहुंचाने के लिए प्रतिबद्ध हैं। pic.twitter.com/MWv7bW0wx8

— Jyotiraditya M. Scindia (@JM_Scindia) February 11, 2026

 (LS-STARRED QUESTION NO. 169; 11-02-2026)

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