Data consumption increased 400% in Rural India in past one year

New Delhi: Data consumption in rural areas has increased by 400% in the past one year, official data showed, indicating a large appetite for internet connectivity in India’s hinterlands.

The government’s initiative to provide Wi-Fi hotspots and fibre-to-home (FTH) connections in rural areas has also garnered more than 1.3 million Wi-Fi registered users. More than two million household subscribers are set to benefit from high-speed broadband connections by December this year, officials said.

Data consumption through the BharatNet optical fibre—operated and maintained by the government’s common service centres (CSCs) in nearly 1,00,000 panchayats—surpassed 13,000 terabytes (TB) till June. This is an increase from 6,000 TB in 2020 and 300-400 TB in July 2019, the data showed.