144 inhabited villages without mobile connectivity in Nagaland

March 25, 2021 56 Views No Comment

Morung Express News
Dimapur | March 24

A total of 144 inhabited villages are still without mobile connectivity in Nagaland, informed a written reply from the Union Ministry of Communications in the Lok Sabha on March 24.

Overall, there are inhabited 25,067 villages in 29 Indian States/Union Territories with no mobile connectivity, stated the reply from the Minister Of State (MoS) For Communications, Education and Electronics & Information Technology Sanjay Dhotre to an unstarred question regarding ‘BSNL network in rural areas.’

The MoS, however, noted that the Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL), on the basis of techno commercial viability, has been “progressively adding more number of Base Transceiver Stations (BTSs) in rural as well as urban areas under various network expansion phases.”

In doing so, mobile coverage in more number of villages and urban areas across all the BSNL’s Licensed Service Areas (LSAs) are increasing, Dhotre added.

As per the list provided by the MoS in the reply, Odisha had the highest number of inhabited villages without mobile connectivity at 6,099, followed by Madhya Pradesh (2612) and Maharashtra (2328).

It was lowest in Lakshadweep (1) followed by West Bengal (8) and Sikkim (10).

At 2223, Arunachal Pradesh had the highest number of inhabited villages with no mobile connectivity followed by Assam (616) and Manipur (206).

Meanwhile, it was further informed at total of 1,55,050 villages in India had service ready Gram Panchayats (GPs) under the Bharat Broadband Network Limited (BBNL), a Special Purpose Vehicle set up under Companies Act by the Government of India and mandated to create the National Optical Fiber Network (NOFN) in the country.

A total of 222 GPs were service ready in Nagaland.

Data on details of number of users utilising BBNL services informed that while number of GPs with Wi-Fi installation was nil, there were 52 GPs with FTTH (fiber-to-the-home) connection as against 4,97,279 in India.

BSNL Landline Exchanges were also ‘working’ in 103 villages under the North East and 76 under the North East 2 circle, it added.

The NE Circle 1 covers Meghalaya, Mizoram and Tripura while NE Circle 2 covers Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur and Nagaland. Assam has a separate circle while Sikkim is under West Bengal.

Source: https://morungexpress.com/144-inhabited-villages-without-mobile-connectivity-in-nagaland