Internet Connectivity for all Indians is still a Dream: TRAI Chief

Chairman of Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) RS Sharma said that four billion people worldwide still had no access to the Internet connectivity and out of that 100 crore people lived in India.

“In data connectivity, there are four billion people who are unconnected and are not using Internet, out of which 100 crore people are from India. This is around one-fourth of the total unconnected people in the world,” said TRAI Chief RS Sharma while speaking at a CII conference on “Building ICT- Infrastructure: Connect the Unconnected ”.

Speaking on the occasion, Minister of State for Communications, Manoj Sinha, said that Internet and mobile phones were the necessities today. He said the Government will take all necessary measures to remove the hurdles being faced by the Indian telecom Industry. Mr Sinha said the number of Internet users in India has gone up but we still need to increase the Internet penetration. TRAI Chief said that we needed to remember that in the software world, India has achieved a lot.

“India has more than 50 per cent share of BPO globally. But, in the world trade we are less than 1.06 of the total trade.” Additional Secretary, Department of telecommunication, N Sivasailam, claimed that around 56,000 villages were yet to be connected. He said that Bharatnet was to be launched soon and at present they were working with Reliance Jio to connect the villagers.