Data consumption in rural India jumped nearly 100% during lockdown: CSC CEO

Data consumption in rural India on the network of CSC SPV jumped nearly 100 per cent within a month - especially during the lockdown period, a top official of the entity said on Sunday.

CSC e-Governance Services India, which holds the license for providing internet services, recorded an increase in data consumption to 4.7 terabyte (TB) as on March 30 from 2.7 TB on March 10.

"Based on the growth trend, data consumption on the CSC SPV network is estimated to have increased by close to 100 per cent till date," CSC SPV CEO Dinesh Tyagi told PTI. He said that a major spike in data consumption has been recorded since the time lockdown started.

"Besides the surge of data consumption in rural areas, there has been a high demand of FTTH (Fiber to Home). In the month of March 20, more than 3 lakh subscribers registered across 50,000 Gram Panchayats for FTTH," Tyagi said.

CSC also provides wifi hotspot in around 25,000 gram panchayats in the name of CSC Wi-fi Choupal services.

According to the CSC data, Wi-Fi Choupal has more than 12 lakh registered subscribers who use this as a supplement to their mobile connection.

"This clearly indicates the high appetite of internet data in rural areas, which in future can be pivotal in bridging Digital Divide and If nurtured with a regular organic feed of educational and informational content rural India can be Digitally Empowered and Transformed," Tyagi noted.

There are more than 60 crore internet users in India and out of this about 29 crore are in rural areas.

The government is implementing the BharatNet project with a view to provide broadband facility to every rural household and has roped in CSC SPV, an organisation under the Ministry of Electronics and IT, to operate , manage and support BharatNet at the panchayat level.

As of now over one lakh panchayats have been enabled to provide broadband services under the BharatNet project.