Bridging the rural-urban digital divide The government believes that better communication services and greater access to information can help bridge the urban–rural digital divide. Therefore, telephony and broadband connectivity in rural areas have been key thrust areas for the government for a while now. While the country’s rural teledensity increased from 2 per cent in 2006 to 33.79 per cent in March 2011, a lot remains to be achieved in ter...

Revising rural broadband schemes may be a good idea The broadband segment has been on the government’s radar for some time now. After several failed targets, DoT plans to invite bids from operators to provide broadband services to over 60,000 villages across the country. DoT is likely to come out with a tender for rural wireless broadband through the Universal Service Obligation (USO) Fund by end-March 2011. Till January 31, 2011, a total of 261,413 broadban...