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

NEW DELHI 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.