INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
Image copyrightGetty ImagesIndia's Prime Minister Narendra Modi wants more than a billion Indians connected to the internet - and his BJP
government is counting on a project taking cheap high-speed broadband to rural areas to achieve this
The project, to build a nationwide optical fibre network, was launched in 2014 and is the flagship scheme of the government's Digital India
In the run-up to the Indian election, which gets under way on 11 April, TheIndianSubcontinent Reality Check is examining claims and pledges
made by the main political parties.So has the project been a successPledge: Indian Communications Minister Manoj Sinha promised to provide
every village in the country with high speed broadband and that this would be achieved by March 2019.Verdict: The project to set up digital
infrastructure in rural India has made substantial headway but has so far achieved less than 50% of its intended target
An ambitious planIndia has the second highest number of internet users in the world but the penetration is quite low for its size and
population.The BharatNet scheme aims to connect more than 600,000 villages in India with a minimum broadband speed of 100Mbps
It would enable local service providers to offer internet access to the local population, primarily through mobile phones and other portable
devices.India's telecom regulator says there were 560 million internet connections in India in September last year
But the pace of internet adoption is lower in rural areas, where most Indians live
What's been achieved so farThe government's overall target is to connect 250,000 village councils covering more than 600,000 individual
villages across the country.The work of laying cables and installing equipment to connect 100,000 of them was finally completed in December
2017 after significant delays.This milestone was hailed a success but there were also critical voices, especially from government opponents
about whether the cables were actually operational.Image copyrightGetty ImagesThe next phase, to connect the remaining councils by March
2019, has been under way for a year now
In total, as of the end of January this year, official data shows optical fibre cables have been laid in 123,489 village councils - and
equipment installed in 116,876 of them
There is also a plan to install wi-fi hotspots in more than 100,000 council areas - but as of January these were operational in only 12,500
of them.Old plan, new nameIt has been an ambition of successive governments to connect all India to the internet but plans have hit many
roadblocks.BharatNet was first conceived in 2011 by the then Congress government as the National Optical Fibre Network but did not make much
headway in its pilot phase
A parliamentary committee said the project had been affected by "inadequate planning and design" from 2011 to 2014
When the BJP came to power in 2014, it took over the project and has pushed ahead with national broadband coverage.And in January last year,
the government said it would complete the work ahead of the stipulated deadline of March 2019
Has the deadline been metThere was impressive progress made in 2016 and 2017 but since then the pace has slowed.In January this year, the
agency executing BharatNet said 116,411 village councils were "service ready"
This means that provisions for ready-to-use connectivity have been made.Status of BharatNet projectBut not all "service ready" village
councils have proper connections, says Osama Manzar, from the non-governmental Digital Empowerment Foundation (DEF)
DEF found that only 50 of 269 "service ready" councils inspected across 13 states in 2018 had the required device and internet connection
And only 31 of them had "functional", but slow, internet connections
Mr Manzar notes that this is problematic considering "the public welfare distribution and the financial sectors rely heavily on digital
infrastructure today".Another report, citing an internal official memo, said most of the councils had non-functioning networks or faulty
equipment.Next stepsBharatNet has faced also difficulties with electricity supply, theft, low-quality cables and poorly maintained equipment
And these delays come as India aims to provide broadband in all households and move to 5G networks by 2022
An official source defended BharatNet as a large-scale infrastructure project tackling difficult sites and not a service scheme, saying it
was natural to see delays between set-up and use.Read more from Reality CheckSend us your questionsFollow us on Twitter
