4G Network In All NE Villages by 2023: Union Minister Rijiju

NEW DELHI: In a significant development, Union Minister for Law and Justice Kiren Rijiju on Tuesday said that all the inhabited areas in the Northeast including the border areas must be connected with 4G network by the end of 2023.

During a meeting at the national capital today, the Union Minister reviewed the 4G saturation project which is aimed at providing 4G cellular network to all the inhabited Northeast villages. After the meet, Rijiju said that a telecom revolution is happening in the country under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. He further added that with this revolution, all the remote areas should be connected.

Talking to the media, Kiren Rijiju said that all inhabited villages of NE along with the border areas must be connected by 4G by December 2023.

The purpose of the meeting on Tuesday was to make sure that there is adequate coordination among the various stakeholders engaged in 4G saturation project in NE India, said Union Minister Rijiju. He further underlined that the meeting was also aimed at bringing all the stakeholders engaged in the project on board and fill gaps if there exists any.

"Reviewed the 4G Saturation project for providing 4G Mobile Service to all inhabited villages of the Northeast. Secretary, Telecom & officials including from Armed Forces attended. Proper coordination is worked out to complete the project timely as desired by PM," tweeted Kiren Rijiju.

During the all-important meet, the Union Minister of Law and Justice also had discussions related to Arunachal Pradesh, his home state.

As per February this year, the Centre informed the Parliament that as many as 25,067 villages of the country out of a total 5,97,618 inhabited villages, do not have mobile connectivity and facilities of the Internet.

Among the 25,067 inhabited villages, the names of 43% or 11,000 of them are included in the Universal Service Obligation Fund, a body under the Department of Telecommunications, Government of India. The Government and Telecom Service Providers or TSPs covered the remaining villages.

Launched in April 2002, the Universal Service Obligation Fund aims to provide cellular telecom connectivity in rural uncovered areas of the country. However, those 11,000 villages included in the fund is still deprived of Internet connection.

Not only this, but as per official figures, among all Government installed WiFi hotspots, only 51% are providing service, the rest remain dysfunctional.

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