UP to expand internet reach with seven new exchange nodes

The Uttar Pradesh government has announced setting up of seven new internet exchange nodes today to augment reach of subscribers across the state. 

The internet exchange nodes will be installed at Kanpur, Agra, Meerut, Lucknow, Allahabad, Varanasi and Gorakhpur. Till date, the state had only such node at Gautam Buddha Nagar. 

Internet exchange nodes or points are commonly referred to as IXes or IXPs, that allow internet service providers to exchange data destined for their respective networks. They act as common grounds for IP networking.   

Also read: India will ensure the Internet remains open and is not dominated by big corporates: MoS IT

Market research firm Statista.com in a report, published on May 7 this year, said that UP has some of the lowest internet penetration rates in the country, at 34%, while the national average is 40%.  

Additionally, in a June report by Niti Aayog this year, which measured internet penetration by states, Uttar Pradesh, along with Uttarakhand were among the lowest scoring states, in terms of internet penetration, scoring 38.73 per 100 citizens.  

The top performer for internet penetration was Delhi, which reported 99.88 internet subscribers per 100 population, with a mobile teledensity of 190.61 per 100 citizens.   

“Setting up of Internet exchange is a part of PM Modi's Digital India vision of connecting all Indians with open, safe & trusted internet,” the report said. 

The top states with most internet penetration are Delhi with 68%, Kerala with 56%, J&K, Haryana, Punjab and Himachal Pradesh who have 52% penetration respectively.   

Since 2014, the number of broadband users in the country have increased from 250 million to around 840 million, the statement said.  

Data consumption has increased from 62.9 petabytes to 11,924 petabytes.  

The government claimed that users in the remote regions of Braj and Bundelkhand will have similar internet connectivity as a metro user.