Govt spend on telecom infra, service up six-fold in 5 years to Rs 60,000 cr; average mobile data usage grows 51 times

New Delhi: The government increased spend on telecom infrastructure and services by six-fold between 2014-19 to Rs 60,000 crore as compared to expenditure made on the same in previous five years, an official statement said on Wednesday. “Six-fold increase in government spending on telecommunications infrastructure and services in the country – from Rs 9,900 crore between 2009-14, to Rs 60,000 crore (actual and planned) between 2014-19,” an annual official review of the telecom ministry said. Besides expenditure made in rolling out optical fibre-based broadband network for rural area, the government said that it made biggest ever telecom spend in the North-East region with allocation of Rs 10,800 crore for ongoing connecting projects in border areas, highways, and unconnected villages. [caption id=“attachment_4129665” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Representational image.Reuters.[/caption] The telecom ministry shared another major investment of Rs 10,000 crore was made in expanding wifi ecosystem in the country. This includes 25,000 hot-spots by BSNL in rural exchanges, 7,000 hot-spots (e-Choupals) by common service centres (CSCs) and additional 1 million hots-pots that are planned to be set-up by March 2019. During the five years, government funded installation for 2335 mobile towers in Left-wing extremism-affected areas in phase 1 with outlay of Rs 4,781 crore and working on phase 2 which involves investment of Rs 7,330 crores for 4,072 mobile towers. It has also earmarked Rs 2,250 crore for the submarine cable connectivity to Andaman and Nicobar Islands, in addition to strengthening connectivity within the islands and in Lakshadweep. During the period, number of mobile base transceiver stations (BTS) more than doubled – from 7.9 lakh in May 2014 to more than20 lakh in May 2018 and country-wide optical fibre coverage doubled – from 7 lakh kilometre in May 2014 to 14 lakh km in May 2018. “Average mobile data usage per subscriber grew 51 times – from 62 MB per month to 3.2 GB per month,” the statement said. The review statement said that there has been tariff reductions in telecom services rates that has benefitted consumers across the country between 2014-19. “Average voice tariff declined by 67 percent – from an average per minute tariff of 51 paise in June 2014 to 11 paise in June 2018. Average data tariff declined by 96 percent - from Rs 269 per GB in 2014, to Rs 12 per GB in June 2018,” the statement said.     To keep watching India’s No. 1 English Business News Channel – CNBC-TV18, call your Cable or DTH Operator and ask for the Colors Family Pack (inclusive of 24 channels), available for Rs. 35/- per month, or subscribe to the channel for Rs. 4/- per day. To keep watching the Leader in Global Market & Business News – CNBC-TV18 Prime HD, call your Cable or DTH Operator and ask for the Colors Family HD Pack (inclusive of 25 channels), available for Rs. 50/- per month, or subscribe to the channel for Rs. 1/- per day.