The State Broadband Committee meeting held under the chairmanship of Chief Secretary Santhi Kumari discussed interdepartmental issues regarding telecom infrastructure and it was decided to constitute a working committee for speeding up 5G services.
The Chief Secretary noted that the state is way ahead of other states in many telecom indicators. With more than four crore mobile phone connections for a population of around 3.5 crores, the teledensity (107%) of TS is one of the highest in the country. Around 97.7 per cent of villages have mobile phone connectivity now. Telangana is one of the few states in the country where 5G has been launched aggressively.
Special Chief Secretary Energy Sunil Sharma, Principal Secretary IT Jayesh Ranjan, Secretary R&B Srinivas Raju, Secretary PR&RD Sandeep Kumar Sultania, and BSNL officials attended the meeting.
The status of pending right-of-way applications was also reviewed at the meeting. The meeting also brought to the notice of the Chief Secretary the need to issue instructions to all engineering departments of the government to undertake ground digging only after intimation through the ‘call before U dig (CBuD) App’ and to use the App before commencing digging anywhere in the state.
