BharatNet’s last mile woes: just 45 per cent connections active

Pegged to be the world’s largest rural fiber optic network, BharatNet is the government’s flagship rural broadband initiative. It is designed to bridge the digital divide by providing high-speed internet to all Gram Panchayats and connecting remote communities to digital public services, education, healthcare, and entrepreneurial opportunities.

While mobile internet has seen significant penetration in the country owing to data becoming more affordable post 2016, it provides basic connectivity for daily browsing and payments. BharatNet is essential to deliver high-capacity, uninterrupted fixed-line broadband to rural areas. It could serve as the digital backbone necessary to support heavy data usage, rural e-governance, and seamless digital healthcare, while avoiding network congestion. Mobile internet is typically not well suited for such high-data use cases.

An earlier March 2025 report by the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Communication and Information Technology, said there were 12.24 lakh fixed broadband connections provided under BharatNet until January 2025. Tallied with the numbers obtained by this paper through the RTI, it means that only around 98,842 new connections were added in the next 14 months until March 2026 (to take the number to 13.23 lakh), which is just a little over 7,000 new connections per month. But it is the active usage of the service where the scope of the project is faltering further, an official said.

The Parliamentary committee had specifically noted that usage of the network remains suboptimal despite the availability of underlying infrastructure. It had also flagged an under-utilisation of funds, noting that the revised estimates for the scheme in 2024-25 was Rs 6,500 crore, of which only 48%, or Rs 3,145 crore were spent.

Overall, the Department of Telecommunications had set a target of 18 lakh fixed broadband connections under the BharatNet scheme until March 2026. That means – at 13.23 lakh commissioned connections – only about 73% of the target was met until March in terms of commissioned, or available connections. With just 8.01 lakh active users, more than 55% of the target number of 18 lakh continued to remain inactive.

Data obtained through RTI also showed there was a progressive slowdown in solidifying the user base for BharatNet over the last three years, underscoring the lack of traction in the ambitious connectivity project. In 2023, the number of active users connected through the BharatNet scheme stood at 4.55 lakh, which fell drastically to 2.86 lakh additions in 2024, and further still to 2.08 lakh in 2025.

According to the government’s last publicly available data, 1.04 lakh public Wi-Fi hotspots were installed under the BharatNet scheme, but of this only 0.7% or 766 such hotspots were operational as of September 2025. The Wi-Fi service is a key way to ensure last-mile delivery of the connectivity scheme. This paper had sought the latest numbers for operational Wi-Fi hotspots in the RTI application, but the question was skipped in the response; an appeal has been filed. The Parliamentary committee had also raised concerns on the slow rollout of WiFi hotspots in its report: “the installation of 1,04,574 Wi-Fi hotspots across Gram Panchayats suggests that while infrastructure exists, its actual usage remains suboptimal. The Committee note with concern that despite the significant infrastructure rollout, BharatNet’s potential remains underutilised.”

In May, Minister of State for Communications Chandra Sekhar Pemmasani said, “Learning from the shortcomings of BharatNet (phase) 1 and 2, we have fixed the issues and are executing with full accountability. Currently, only 15 lakh rural households are connected. Our target is 1.5 crore households in the first phase”.

The Department of Telecommunications and Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL) did not respond to a request for comment until publication.

India launched the National Optical Fibre Network (NOFN) in 2011 to bring high-speed broadband to 2.5 lakh Gram Panchayats using optical fibre cables, which later spawned into the BharatNet project. In 2012, Bharat Broadband Network Ltd (BBNL) was set up to manage the project, initially planned for completion by 2014. Delays led to its relaunch as BharatNet in 2015. Phase I targets were achieved only by 2017, and Phase II faced further delays despite revised deadlines. In June 2021, the project was expanded under Phase III to cover 6.5 lakh villages by 2025, with upgraded networks and last-mile partnerships. In 2022, the Union Cabinet approved the merger of BBNL with BSNL to speed up BharatNet rollout.

A year later, in 2023, the government launched the Rs 1.39 lakh-crore Amended BharatNet Program. The updated scheme promises to provide 1.5 crore fixed broadband connections across rural households, institutions and enterprises in India over a period of five years.

Another point of concern within the government has been the limited last-mile connectivity of BharatNet. “While fibre may have been laid till a Gram Panchayat, there are a number of cases where there is no connection beyond that. That means that the infrastructure is not reaching people where they might actually want to use the Internet, that is at their homes and workplaces,” a senior government official said.

In a recent consultation paper floated by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) on the proliferation of public Wi-Fi hotspots under the PM-WANI scheme, the regulator had said that existing infrastructure set up under BharatNet could be used to offer such a service in the country. However, in response to the paper, some stakeholders flagged the last-mile challenge related to BharatNet.

“The Authority (TRAI) has rightly noted that the success of public Wi-Fi deployment depends on the availability of reliable last-mile connectivity. Evidently, the BharatNet connectivity is not sufficient, otherwise this consultation was not required,” Reliance Jio said.

Broadband India Forum (BIF), a think tank representing tech companies, said, “While initiatives such as BharatNet have significantly improved middle mile reach in many parts of the country, the challenge of economically viable local last-mile distribution often continues to persist. In many cases, fibre may reach a Gram Panchayat or institutional node, but affordable and scalable extension from the aggregation point to local hotspots, public spaces, commercial establishments or community access locations may remain inadequate”.

“Fibre reaches GPs (Gram Panchayats) but not the actual hotspot location or village community. This last-mile problem is real and acute in rural Gram Panchayats,” said Wi-Fi provider Wiom, commenting on BharatNet’s “last-mile gap”.