Erstwhile Andhra Pradesh has second-most net connections: TRAI

HYDERABAD: Telecom Regulatory Authority of India’s (TRAI) Andhra Pradesh service area (which includes Telangana) is the second-largest area in terms of internet broadband subscriptions in the country, as per a recently-released report titled ‘The Indian Telecom Services Performance Indicators (Jan-March 2020).’ 

The Telugu States have 5.8 crore internet subscribers after factoring in both wired and wireless connections, which is second only to Maharashtra, where there are 6.3 crore subscribers. In this area, 29 lakh people use narrowband internet. However, as expected, majority of the users - 5.4 crore -  subscribe to the broadband variety of internet. 

The digital divide between the rural and urban areas in both these States remains stark. According to the report, as of March 2020, there are 46.71 internet subscribers per 100 population in the rural areas, as opposed to 93.61 per 100 in the urban areas. 

It is important to note that there has been an increase in rural internet penetration, going by the TRAI’s Indian Telecom Service Performance Indicators report from June. 

Though there are many States which fare worse than Telangana, the State government’s various internet-intensive initiatives, such as the artificial intelligence in agriculture, indicates that there needs to be more internet penetration in rural areas. The only State which has a lopsided figure when it comes to the rural-urban divide is Kerala, where there are 98.10 users per 100 population in rural areas, as opposed to 64.65 in urban areas.