DEHRADUN: Even as the Union government continues to focus on technology-driven development and digital revolution across the country, 700 villages in Uttarakhand still don’t have mobile and internet connectivity.
Also, in 3,500 out of the 16,793 villages in the hill state, residents have not been able to move beyond 2G service. The scenario may change now, with the Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL) looking at enhancing services in the region.
“In places where neither any private operator nor BSNL is present, the government has given the task to BSNL,” O P Kanojia, BSNL General Manager (Mobiles & Internet), told this newspaper. “Now the government has to inform us about where these facilities are to be given, or upgraded from 2G to 4G,” he added.
As per the annual report of the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI), as of March 2022, about 83.80 lakh people were using the internet in Uttarakhand, Kanojia said. Of this, 39 per cent of internet users in rural areas are women while the rest are men, which is more than the national average of 24.60 per cent women and 48.70 per cent men.
However, internet facilities are still inadequate from the point of view of tourism and pilgrimage footfall in Uttarakhand, Kanojia said. As per the TRAI report, 83.80 lakh people in the state use the internet. Of these, 38.90 lakh users are from rural areas.
According to the report, only 52 per cent people in rural areas are using the internet. “As far as connectivity in urban areas is concerned, we have been almost fully successful in providing services. Now we are focusing on inaccessible and mountainous areas,” BSNL General Manager Dehradun SK Singh said. “In many remote rural areas of the state, people still have to come to the city to get internet-related work done. Also, in the era of online studies, students don’t get net signals at home, and they have to climb nearby hills or trees to find signals,” Singh added, stressing that the shortfall will be met to a great extent after the approval given to BSNL. According to Kanojia, BSNL is now only waiting for the government’s report on which locations have been identified for installation of towers.
“Work on this will be started as soon as the permission and other formalities are completed,” he added. Among the hill states in India, Assam has the highest number of internet subscribers at 1.59 crore, followed by Jammu and Kashmir (84.7 lakh), Uttarakhand (83.8 lakh), Himachal (62.7 lakh), Tripura (18.70 lakh), Meghalaya (17.50 lakh), Nagaland (14.80 lakh), Manipur (11.10 lakh) and Sikkim (5.40 lakh).
Connecting the hills
Internet users in the state 83.80 lakh
39% women in rural areas
24.6% women nationally
52% people in rural areas are using internet
Source: Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) annual report March 2022