Andhra Pradesh Offers Incentives to Expand Mobile Connectivity in Rural Areas

The Andhra Pradesh government has approved a package of incentives to accelerate mobile network expansion in rural, remote and commercially unviable areas, with the goal of achieving 100% mobile connectivity across the state.

Under the initiative, the government will provide free government land for setting up mobile towers in villages and residential areas without adequate signal coverage. It will also extend electricity subsidies to reduce the additional operational costs faced by telecom companies in locations where establishing infrastructure is not commercially viable.

The government said universal mobile connectivity is essential for ensuring uninterrupted access to digital governance, education, healthcare and financial services. Although Andhra Pradesh has an extensive telecom network, operators have been hesitant to invest in sparsely populated and remote areas because of the high cost involved in establishing and maintaining infrastructure.

Telecom operators had approached the government seeking land and power concessions to make network expansion feasible in such locations. The Cabinet approved the measures in response to these concerns.

The electricity subsidy will be linked to the commercial viability of each tower. Based on average revenue per user, a rural tower will be considered self-sustaining once it has at least 450 subscribers. After reaching the threshold, the subsidy will be withdrawn and the normal electricity tariff will apply.

The government support will be reviewed every three years and discontinued if subscriber numbers increase enough to make a tower commercially viable. Participating operators will also have to establish towers and related infrastructure within specified deadlines.

The programme will promote intra-circle roaming, enabling users to access available networks where multiple operators cannot economically establish separate infrastructure.

BSNL, Airtel, Reliance Jio and Vodafone Idea are expected to participate. The government hopes the initiative will particularly strengthen connectivity in rural and tribal areas, improving access to online education, banking and digital public services.