3,841 villages in Northeast remain out of mobile network coverage

Staff Reporter

Guwahati: At a time when Digital India is making waves in the country, as many as 3,841 villages in the Northeast region still remain out of mobile phone network coverage. Of this, a total of 422 villages in Assam also lack access to the mobile phone network.

According to the Registrar General of India (RGI), the eight Northeastern states have a total of 45,934 villages. As per the latest report of the Ministry of Communications, as of June 2025, 42,093 of the total villages have access to a mobile network. This leaves 3,841 villages without mobile network coverage.

Among the NE states, Arunachal Pradesh has the highest number of villages without mobile connectivity: 1,735. There are a total of 5,993 villages in Arunachal. Of this, 4,258 villages have mobile phone connectivity.

Assam has a total of 26,429 villages, of which 26,007 villages have access to a mobile network. This leaves 422 villages out of mobile network coverage.

In the neighbouring state of Meghalaya, the total number of villages is 7,100. Of this, 6,424 villages have mobile connectivity, leaving 676 villages still to be connected to the mobile network.

As for Manipur, 393 of the total 2,612 villages are yet to have access to the mobile network.

Mizoram has 867 villages in total, of which 112 are not connected to the mobile network. Nagaland has 300 of the 1,535 villages without coverage, Sikkim has 8 of 461 villages, and Tripura has 195 of 937 villages without mobile connectivity.

In the NE states as a whole, 40,663 of the total of 45,934 villages have 4G coverage. This leaves 5,271 villages without even 4G network coverage. Of this, the figure for Assam stands at 495.

Mobile coverage for any uncovered inhabited villages is provided by the Telecom Service Providers (TSPs) based on the techno-commercial     viability. The government, through funding from Digital Bharat Nidhi (DBN), is implementing various projects/schemes for expansion of telecom connectivity through installation of mobile towers in the rural, remote and border areas of the country, including the NER, according to the Ministry of Communications.

The DBN projects under the Comprehensive Telecom Development Plan (CTDP) for the NER are for providing mobile connectivity to uncovered villages and areas along National Highways with the objective of extending mobile network access to underserved populations in the region. As of June 2025, 2,485 mobile towers have been commissioned under DBN schemes in NER, providing mobile connectivity to 3,389 villages or locations.

Also Read: Northeast Border Villages Lack Mobile Network

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