Villages Without 4G Fall to 11,372 Under Saturation Project

The map of India's mobile blank spots has shrunk sharply. On 11 November 2026 the Department of Telecommunications reported that the count of villages with no 4G signal has fallen by close to 75 per cent in four years, from 45,180 in 2022 to 11,372 in 2026.

What the 4G Saturation Project does

Much of that gain comes from the Department's 4G Saturation Project, drawn up to carry mobile coverage into 24,680 villages that had none. The aim is plainly stated: people living in remote and underserved habitations should be able to make a call, use a bank, sit for a class or reach a doctor on the same network the rest of the country uses. Private telecom operators have added to the effort through their own network expansion.

How much the new towers carry

Of the 24,680 sites planned, BSNL has commissioned 18,291, and the traffic they carry shows that rural demand was waiting to be served. In October 2026 these sites served as many as 10,21,048 active users in a single day. Together those users consumed more than 1.86 crore GB of data in the month, which works out at 18,659,170 GB in full, or an average of 18.3 GB for each user. On average about 56 active users are attached to a site, which tells its own story about how thinly spread the settlements are that these towers reach.

The next phase and what stands in the way

The Government has sanctioned a further 26,000 mobile network sites for the next round of expansion, meant to close the gaps that remain. Those gaps are the hardest ones. Difficult terrain, the high cost of putting up infrastructure, scattered houses and remote tribal habitations all raise the price of each new tower while lowering the number of people it can serve. The Department says it will keep working with BSNL and other service providers, lean on network-sharing arrangements, make better use of towers already standing and target aspirational and tribal districts first.