Data published by TRAI revealed that nearly half a billion Indians, mostly rural are still to become digital citizens, even where voice telephony is concerned. As per the data, 500 million Indians do not yet own a personal mobile device and the slow pace of growth indicates that a 100% rural teledensity target may be possible only eight years later or by 2020.
TRAI pegged India’s mobile teledensity at 72.12% or 865.71 million wireless subscribers as of August 2011. However in reality, VLR (Visitor Location Register) data showed that only 70.30% are active, indicating a real subscriber base of 608.63 million.
Of the total 865 million mobile subscribers, rural subscribers are pegged at 295.17 million, translating to an overall rural teledensity of 35.20%. As per the VLR parameters, only 206 million of these are active (70% of 295 million). Given that India has 700 million rural inhabitants, this leaves nearly half a billion rural Indians outside the mobile network.
The challenge for the government in this respect is enormous and well identified in both draft NTP 2011. The draft NTP seeks to increase rural teledensity from the current level of around 35% to 60% by the year 2017 and 100% by the year 2020.
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