National Broadband Mission

National Broadband Mission

Part of: GS Prelims and GS-III – Economic Development

In News

• The government announced a new ‘mission’ aimed at providing broadband access in all villages in the country by 2022, 
• Under the mission, the government plans to lay incremental 30 lakh route km of Optical Fiber Cable, while also increasing tower density from 0.42 to 1 tower per thousand of population by 2024.
• The mission envisages stakeholder investment of $100 billion (Rs7 lakh crore), including Rs70,000 crore from Universal Service Obligation Fund (USOF) in coming years
• The vision of the national broadband mission is to fast-track growth of digital communications infrastructure, bridge the digital divide, facilitate digital empowerment and inclusion, and provide affordable and universal access of broadband for all
• Additionally, a Broadband Readiness Index will be developed to measure the availability of digital communications infrastructure within a State/UT.