1,921 villages without mobile service in Assam

 NE has 7,335 villages without mobile network

STAFF REPORTER

GUWAHATI: At a time when the 5th generation (5G) mobile network has become a reality in a few cities in Assam, as many as 1,921 villages in the state are beyond the reach of the mobile network. As many as 7,335 of the total 45,934 villages in the entire Northeast, including Sikkim, are beyond the reach of mobile service.

The recent statistics of the Union Ministry of Communications (Department of Telecommunication) have revealed this fact. According to the statistics, Assam has a total of 26,429 villages, and 24,508 of these villages have mobile services. The remaining 1,921 villages have no mobile services. Arunachal Pradesh has the highest number of villages without mobile services, with 2,626. The total number of villages in Arunachal Pradesh is 5,993. In terms of the number of villages without mobile services, Assam comes next to Arunachal Pradesh. Following Assam and Arunachal Pradesh, villages without mobile services are Meghalaya with 1,370 out of 7,100 villages; Manipur with 492 out of 2,612 villages; Nagaland with 356 out of 1,535 villages; Sikkim with 304 out of 461 villages; Tripura with 143 out of 937 villages; and Mizoram with 123 out of 867 villages.

According to information from the Union Ministry, various mobile projects are being implemented with viability gap funding from the Universal Service Obligation Fund (USOF) to enhance internet and mobile services in the northeastern region. Out of a total of 5,005 mobile towers planned in the NER, 2,127 towers have already been commissioned. Under the BharatNet project, as of June 30, 2023, out of a total of 12,079 Gram Panchayats (GPs), 6,148 had already been connected by optical fibre cable in the region.

According to the statistics, BSNL has 12.43 percent of the subscriber market in the northeastern region.

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