The rollout of 5G services can unleash new economic opportunities and help the country leapfrog the traditional barriers to development, spur innovations by start-ups and business enterprises, and advance the ‘Digital India’ vision, the Economic Survey 2023 said on Tuesday.
“The journey is far from complete, and a lot remains to be accomplished to realise our true potential,” the survey said adding that even as rural tele-density improves, it still continues at much lower level compared to urban areas.
The survey said that the catch-up by the rural areas is heartening as the YoY change in Internet subscribers is greater in rural areas (for the majority of the States) than in urban areas.
As of November 2022, India’s telephone subscriber base stood at 117 crore, while more than 97 per cent of the total subscribers (114.3 crore) are connected wirelessly. Also, 83.7 crore have Internet connections as of June 2022.
The rise of affordable smartphones and cheap data costs propelled the Internet penetration in rural areas in the three years between 2019 and 2021 than in urban areas, the survey mentioned.
This will enable a widespread homogenous economic growth across various parts of the country. While being fed by a low penetration, the number of new Internet connections in rural areas stood at 95.76 million in the 2019-2021 period, compared to 92.81 million in urban areas, it said.
“This has been a result of dedicated digital drives across rural areas through ambitious government schemes, like the flagship BharatNet project scheme, Telecom Development Plan, Aspirational District Scheme, initiatives in North-Eastern Region through Comprehensive Telecom Development Plan (CTDP) and initiatives towards areas affected by Left Wing Extremism (LWE),” the survey added.