Free WiFi to all villages connected via Bharat Net till March 2020: Prasad

WiFi services being provided through BharatNet in villages across India will be free of charge till March 2020, Telecom and Information Technology Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said on Wednesday.

“We have already connected 1.3 lakh gram panchayats through BharatNet optical fibre network… Our target is to take this to 2.5 lakh gram panchayats. To promote utilisation of BharatNet services, we will provide WiFi free in all villages connected through BharatNet till March 2020,” the minister said.

Currently, 48,000 villages connected under the BharatNet project have WiFi access.

The minister said all common service centres (CSCs) will offer banking services. As such, CSCs act as access points for delivery of digital services and the number of these centres has increased from about 60,000 in 2014 to 3.60 lakh currently. Haryana itself has 11,000 CSCs offering an array of 650 services.