Number of villages without 4G connectivity falls by three-fourths in four years

India is still far from universal smartphone ownership, even as cities and towns often enjoy extensive high-speed 5G coverage and affordable wired home broadband.

The number of villages without 4G connectivity has fallen from 45,180 in 2022 to 11,372, about a fourth of the earlier figure, according to data from the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) obtained by The Hindu under the Right to Information Act, 2005. The reduction is partly the result of BSNL’s 4G saturation project. But the figure is beyond the scheme’s initial target of covering 24,680 villages, indicating complementary efforts by private operators.

The reduction is notable because of historical gaps in connectivity between urban and rural India. The country is still far from universal smartphone ownership, even as cities and towns often enjoy extensive high-speed 5G coverage and affordable wired home broadband. The development also comes at a time when additions to wired broadband subscriptions have stagnated for months, making mobile broadband — the primary means of internet access for Indians — all the more important.

The Union government has “sanctioned the next order of 26,000 [sites],” a senior official said last week. In 12 or 13 circles, BSNL’s efforts have been supplemented by intra-circle agreements with Vodafone Idea Ltd (Vi). “So, BSNL has come a long way,” the official said.

Odisha topped the list of States with the highest number of villages without 4G coverage, at 1,789, as of August 31. This figure includes over 300 uninhabited villages. Arunachal Pradesh ranked second, with 1,518 villages, roughly a tenth of which are uninhabited. The northeastern State’s tally of unconnected villages was reduced by 59%, 16 percentage points less than the national average.

The next few States — Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Rajasthan and Himachal Pradesh — have all reduced the number of villages without 4G connectivity by well over half.

An analysis by The Hindu suggests that this year, around 40 lakh people may live in villages without 4G reception. This amounts to roughly 0.25% of India’s estimated population. Scheduled Tribe-dominated villages account for the bulk of this population, the analysis found, with 46% of the population in villages whose names are found in the 2011 Census falling into this category. The population of these villages represents 11% of the overall sample.

This estimate does not include villages that did not exist in 2011. As there has been no nationwide Census since that year, many villages have been added and removed from the overall list.

Some entries in the newer list of villages with 4G connectivity are inconsistent with information shared by the Communications Ministry in a parliamentary response in March. For instance, while the list shared with The Hindu includes eight villages in Kerala, the Ministry’s response reported villages without 4G coverage in the State.