Andhra Pradesh offers free land, subsidised power for 100% connectivity

The government of Andhra Pradesh in India wants everyone in the state, even people in tiny remote villages, to be able to use a mobile phone.

Phone companies were not building towers in those villages because there were too few customers to make money.

So the government decided to help them by giving them free government land to build their towers.

The companies also get cheaper electricity to run the towers.

The cheaper electricity lasts until a tower has about 450 customers.

Once there are about 450 customers, the tower makes enough money to pay normal electricity bills.

The companies must finish building the towers on time and make sure calls work between different networks.

The government will check the plan every three years to see if the help is still needed.

This helps people reach digital services like education, healthcare, banking and financial services.