Bridge digital divide: Parliamentary panel draft report

A parliamentary panel, concerned that large parts of Naxalite-hit districts have no mobile network coverage, plans to ask the government to urgently bridge the digital gap in the country.
The Standing Committee on Finance, in a draft report on transformation towards a digital economy, noted that urgent and earnest efforts were required to vastly improve the quality of telecom services in the country.
..the quality of telecom coverage in the country is unevenly distributed, as 95 per cent, 75 per cent and 60 per cent population is covered by the 2G, 3G and 4G spectrum respectively, the draft report added.

In some troubled areas hit by left wing extremism, there was no network at all, it said, and called for efforts to help people on the margins reach out to the rest of India.
Digital transformation of the economy is not possible without basic 2G mobile services and state-run firms such as BSNL should play a more active role in it, BJP MP Nishikant Dubey said last month at the panel's meeting, where the draft was discussed.
In the report the committee has called for efforts by both central and state governments, along with industry, to improve the quality of telecom coverage so that the vast digital divide could be bridged.

The report also emphasised that the Universal Services Obligation Fund (USOF) should be fully deployed, particularly with public sector telecom companies, for mobile and internet penetration. The USOF was created under the National Telecom Policy, 1999, for providing access of telecom services to people in rural areas at affordable prices.
The fund should be utilised for delivering digital services to areas with no telecom coverage, it added.