India’s rural broadband user base has reached 25.51 million, with Karnataka being the state with the highest rural users. Around 2.77 million users are from rural Karnataka. Kerala is the state with the next higher rural user base, with around 2.52 million. Tamil Nadu stands third on the list with 2.27 million rural users.
"Rural broadband Internet subscriber base is 25.51 million as on March 31, 2015, as reported by Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI)," Minister of Communications and Information Technology Ravi Shankar Prasad said in a written reply to the Lok Sabha.
In urban areas, the total number of users is 73.69 million. Delhi has the highest number of urban users at 8.7 million. Tamil Nadu and Maharastra including Goa stand the next on the list, with 7.56 million and 7.44 million respectively.
Hence, the total number of broadband users in the country is around 99.20 million as of 31 March 2015.
Scarcity of content in local languages, poor infrastructure, poor power supply, low literacy etc. are the reasons cited for low broadband penetration in India. "Scarcity of relevant content in local/regional languages and Right of Way permission for laying of optical fibre and poor availability of poor optical fibre connectivity are also some of the issues," Minister added.
