Parliament Question: Service-ready under BharatNet Project in Karnataka

GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF COMMUNICATIONS DEPARTMENT OF TELECOMMUNICATIONS LOK SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 4109 ANSWERED ON 12TH AUGUST, 2026 SERVICE-READY UNDER BHARATNET PROJECT IN KARNATAKA

4109. DR. C N MANJUNATH:

WILL the Minister of COMMUNICATIONS be pleased to state:

(a) the details and number of Gram Panchayats made service-ready under the BharatNet Project in Karnataka including Bengaluru Rural Lok Sabha Constituency and the details of works under the Amended BharatNet Programme (ABP);

(b) whether the Government has assessed the utilisation of BharatNet connectivity including last-mile broadband access, in rural areas of Karnataka and if so, the details thereof;

(c) the details and number of PM-WANI public Wi-Fi hotspots established and the status of 5G network rollout and Base Transceiver Stations (BTSs) commissioned in Karnataka particularly in the rural and peri-urban areas of the Bengaluru Rural Lok Sabha Constituency, district-wise; and

(d) the measures taken or proposed to strengthen last-mile connectivity, expand PM- WANI services, accelerate 5G coverage and bridge the digital divide in rural and semi-urban areas of Karnataka? ANSWER MINISTER OF STATE FOR COMMUNICATIONS AND RURAL DEVELOPMENT (DR. PEMMASANI CHANDRA SEKHAR)

(a) & (b) The Government of India approved the Amended BharatNet Program (ABP) on

04.08.2023 for the upgradation/creation of network in all 2.65 lakh Gram Panchayats (GPs) across the country using ring topology, including 6,090 GPs in Karnataka. As on 30.06.2026, 344 Gram Panchayats (GPs) in Karnataka have been upgraded. Under the ABP, Government has made provision for 1.5 crore Fibre-To-The-Home (FTTH) connections across the country including Karnataka, with priority to cover Government institutions, including schools, Primary Health Centres, Anganwadis and Panchayat offices.

(c) As on 30.06.2026, the total number of Prime Minister Wi-Fi Access Network Interface (PM-WANI) Public Data Offices (PDOs) in Karnataka is 21,843 including 6,911 Wi-Fi hotspots in the rural area. Further, 5G networks have been rolled out across all States/UTs in the country, including Karnataka. As on 30.06.2026, 35,388 nos of 5G Base Transceiver Stations (BTSs) have been made operational in Karnataka which includes 1,112 nos of 5G BTSs in Bengaluru Rural Lok Sabha Constituency. District-wise details are at Annexure.(d) The Department of Telecommunications issued policy interventions on 16.09.2024 to reduce costs and enhance the viability of Public Data Offices (PDOs) and Public Data Office Aggregators (PDOAs) for expansion of PM-WANI PDOs, including in rural and remote areas.

The measures include enabling PM-WANI through FTTH connections, aggregation of multiple access points, mobile data offloading, and promotional messaging with user consent. Further, home and business Wi-Fi access points have been enabled to join the PM-WANI network, along with inter-PDOA roaming for seamless user access.

The Government has undertaken various initiatives under the Digital Bharat Nidhi

(DBN) to bridge the digital divide in rural and remote areas, including BharatNet for providing broadband connectivity to Gram Panchayats (GPs) and villages and the 4G Saturation Scheme for providing mobile coverage in uncovered rural and remote areas across the country, including Karnataka. As on 30.06.2026, under the DBN funded schemes, 23,426 mobile towers have been made on air across the country including 2,821towers in Karnataka.Further, 5G networks have been rolled out in all States/UTs, including Karnataka.Annexure referred to in the reply to part (c) of Lok Sabha Untarred Question No. 4109, to be answered on 12th August, 2026 Details of 5G BTSs and PM-WANI Public Data Offices (PDOs) in the Karnataka as on

30.06.2026 SL NO. District 5G BTS PM-WANI Public Data Offices (PDOs) 1 Bagalkote 735 424 2 Ballari 713 294 3 Belagavi 2,078 908 4 Bengaluru Rural 1,030 1,166 5 Bengaluru Urban 11,763 10,535 6 Bidar 678 241 7 Chamarajanagara 357 197 8 Chikkaballapura 612 240 9 Chikkamagaluru 537 390 10 Chitradurga 576 500 11 Dakshina Kannada 1,505 811 12 Davangere 675 464 13 Dharwad 1,036 590 14 Gadag 364 235 15 Hassan 817 529 16 Haveri 505 190 17 Kalaburagi 942 495 18 Kodagu 274 182 19 Kolar 795 330 20 Koppal 532 134 21 Mandya 836 192 22 Mysuru 1,714 500 23 Raichur 711 298 24 Ramanagara 598 64 25 Shivamogga 787 536 26 Tumakuru 1,148 297 27 Udupi 747 297 28 Uttara Kannada 618 478 29 Vijayanagar 391 49 30 Vijayapura 942 215 31 Yadgir 372 62 Grand Total 35,388 21,843 *****