Thanks to the emphatic push for digital connectivity, India, in the last three years or so, has seen more internet-growth in rural areas than in its urban counterparts, notes Ashish D. Jain.
Amid surging consumption in data all over the world, India has over 1.2 billion internet-users in the country, with the total number of internet-connections reaching close to 851 million in 2023.
Internet-penetration in rural India is 41 per cent against 71 per cent in its urban areas (as per IAMAI and KANTAR). But even in an era of hyper-connectivity, millions from our country are left in the shadows, as around 730 million people, i.e. 51.3 per cent still don’t have reliable access to the internet.
But in the last three years or so, India has seen more internet-growth in rural areas than in its urban counterparts. This has been a result of an emphatic push for digital connectivity and Digital India, a Government of India campaign, with its dedicated digital drives across rural areas through ambitious governmental schemes, like the flagship BharatNet Project. In the past, rural connectivity grew through undependable microwave links, legacy copper cabling and a little bit of fibre-laying. But fibre-optic technology gained momentum as the game-changer in the network infrastructure-development. Optical Fiber Cables (OFCs) opened up a world of possibilities, in terms of high-speed broadband and low-latency connectivity. OFC-based networks provided reliability in connectivity and drove internet-inclusiveness. The objective of BharatNet was to provide OFC-based connectivity to all villages, with large-mile connectivity to be provided by Wi-Fi or Telecom networks, capitalizing on the high bandwidth fibre-backbone, built under the project. Internet-connectivity and high-speed data-availability, made possible through the OFC-network created by BharatNet, have gone on to assimilate the unconnected & underserved in economy & fulfil the vision of Digital India.
BharatNet Project
At present, around 1.94 lakh villages have been connected under the BharatNet project. The project is in its second phase with presence in states like Maharashtra, Gujarat, Chhattisgarh, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana and Tamil Nadu, while in its first phase the fibre-optic network was laid in Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Chandigarh, Delhi, Goa, Haryana, Karnataka, Kerala and other states. By laying OFCs in villages, the project built the basic foundations of our digital economy. In a concerted bid to make considerable strides in improving the country’s human capital, our government had announced a slew of new initiatives, like Digital India, Make-in-India, Start-up India and innovative applications, based on Aadhaar Cards, carrying a 12-digit random number issued by the Unique Identification Authority of India, a statutory authority of Government of India to perform authentication and the security of identity-information for Indian citizens. Successful and accelerated implementation of these programmes could only be achieved by high-speed and reliable network-connectivity. Digital facilities are expected to have a multiplier effect within society, more so in rural areas. Wi-fi connectivity at common places in villages, CCTV-surveillance, tele-medicine, online education, e-farming, payment-facility for telephone, gas or electricity-connections and easy accessibility to varied governmental schemes will present the rural people with many unique opportunities in life and for living. Young people, being the natural adopters of new technologies, will have access to digital facilities to get into contact with the broader world, opening up their pathways to education and vocational training in a very cost-effective way.
Though availability of high-bandwidth fibre propelled mobile and internet-connectivity, yet lack of fibre-infrastructure keeps a check on India’s ambitions in this 5G era. The success of BharatNet and OFC-based digital expansion in rural India motivated the decision-makers to provide last-mile connectivity and schemes like Wi-Fi Choupal were conceived to extend Wi-Fi to rural corners of the country. A gap between a broadband internet service-provider’s infrastructure and a customer’s home stands as a big last-mile hitch in connectivity in rural parts of India. High-speed bandwidth services to every single subscriber in villages still remain a task to be done. So, in BharatNet Phase-II, apart from dropping fibres to villages, fibre-to-home services on the existing infrastructure have also been on the agenda.
Udyamis
Now when around 1.94 lakh villages have been connected and rest of the 6,40,000 villages in the country are expected to be connected in the next 2.5 years, the government has brought in a roadmap to use Village Level Entrepreneurs (VLEs) who it calls Udyamis, to take the fibre-connections to every household in rural areas. This is a major policy-articulation and push by the government. The last-mile connectivity will be provided by Bharat Broadband Network Ltd (BBNL), an arm of state-owned BSNL, in partnership with the Udyamis. Starting with villages in 4 districts, the new BharatNet Udyami project has already been successfully expanded to 60,000 villages across most of the states, providing 3,51,000 fibre-connections at the doorsteps. Average data-consumption per household has been documented nearly 175 gigabytes per month. The project is being rolled out on 50 per cent revenue-share between BBNL and VLEs or Udyamis, wherein customer-premise equipment and additional fibres required for connecting homes are being provided by BBNL. Udyamishave been assigned with the responsibility to play the interface between BBNL and customers for maintenance, operations, addressing of complaints and ensuring the health of the fibres. As per reports, after the launch of the Udyami project, the broadband-connection has started to enrich rural people’s daily lives with digital connectivity, such as people getting treatment with the help of global doctors, businessmen delivering tutorials on YouTube, rural aspirants saving money on preparation for competitive exams and many other essential services reaching to the last person in the villages. Not only that, the project could also bring in jobs for over 2.5 lakh Udhyamis. Surely, dedicated fibre to each home can further change the way how we imagine rural India in many ways than one. Policies like this can offer a great leap forward for equity in digital access.
Polycab Telecom
We have been delivering our services for BharatNet, world’s largest rural broadband project, wherein we achieved back-to-back timely completion of projects in Gujarat and Bihar and are working currently for another project in Tamil Nadu. All-in-all, the digital highway of nearly 35,000 km, made by us in Gujarat, Bihar and Tamil Nadu, would definitely help our nation in harnessing technology to transcend poverty, geography and reach to become a driving force in the lives of millions of people and giving them the benefits of genuine digital inclusion.
About the author: Ashish D. Jain is Executive President & COO, Polycab India Ltd
