Communication networks: post, telecom, digital and mass media

Detail

1. How communication grew

• Communication means sending messages, ideas and information from one place or person to another.
• Early means: drums, smoke signals and fast runners carried messages.
• Later means: post, then telegraph, then the press (printed newspapers), then the telephone, and now satellites.
• Transport and communication were once the same thing:
• A letter or message had to be carried by a person, an animal or a vehicle.
• So early means of communication were also means of transport.
• The telegraph, telephone and satellite later separated the two. Today a message no longer needs to travel with a vehicle.

2. Personal and mass communication

• Personal communication: one person sends a message to another person or a small group.
• Mass communication: one source sends a message to very many people at the same time.

Type	Examples	Main feature
Personal	letters, telephone, internet, email	one-to-one; private; two-way
Mass	radio, television, newspapers, films, satellites	one-to-many; reaches the whole nation; mostly one-way

• Internet: the most advanced personal communication system.
• It is used for email, e-commerce (buying and selling goods online) and money transactions.
• It works like a "central warehouse of data". A huge store of information on almost every subject sits in one place, open to anyone who is connected.

3. Postal network

• India's postal network is the largest in the world.
• 1,64,987 post offices are working in India: 1,49,164 rural and 15,823 urban [6][7].
• About 90% of post offices are in rural areas, and over 1.54 lakh of them are ICT-enabled (ICT: Information and Communication Technology, meaning computers and networks) (2022) [8].

• India has over 4.28 lakh letter boxes. Over 4.14 lakh India Post employees and Gramin Dak Sevaks (rural postal workers) run the network (2022) [8].

• Classes of mail:

Class	What it carries	How it travels
First-class mail	cards and envelopes	by air, over both land and air routes
Second-class mail	book packets, registered newspapers and periodicals	by surface transport (land and water)

• Six mail channels were set up to speed up mail delivery in large towns and cities: 1. Rajdhani Channel 2. Metro Channel 3. Green Channel 4. Business Channel 5. Bulk Mail Channel 6. Periodical Channel

• Trap: these six channels are for faster mail sorting and delivery. They are not railway corridors, and they are not telecom bands.

4. Telecommunication

• Telecom network: India has one of the largest telecom networks in Asia.
• STD to villages:
• STD (Subscriber Trunk Dialling: direct long-distance calls without an operator) was extended to villages.
• It was done by combining space technology (satellites) with communication technology.

• STD rates were made uniform across India (NCERT, dated).

• Size today:

• India is the world's second-largest telecom market.
• At the end of February 2026, India had 1,273.31 million telephone subscribers (wireless + wireline) and 1,321.31 million total subscriptions when broadband is included [2].

• Broadband subscribers numbered 1,059.05 million (February 2026). Of these, 996.52 million used mobile broadband (3G/4G/5G) [2].

• 5G:

• 5G (fifth-generation mobile network: very high speed and very low delay) started on 1 October 2022.

• 5G FWA (Fixed Wireless Access: home broadband sent by 5G radio instead of a cable) grew from 10.41 million subscribers (November 2025) to 10.99 million (December 2025) [3].

• Digital public infrastructure (DPI):

• DPI means shared digital systems that anyone can build on, much as anyone can drive on a public road.
• Examples are Aadhaar (12-digit biometric identity number) and UPI (Unified Payments Interface: instant mobile-to-mobile bank payments).

5. Digital India

• Digital India was launched on 1 July 2015. It aims to turn India into a digitally empowered society and knowledge economy.

• Three aims (vision areas): 1. Digital infrastructure as a core utility for every citizen. Broadband, mobile phones and a digital identity should be as basic as water or electricity. 2. Governance and services on demand. Government services should be available online at any time. 3. Digital empowerment of citizens. Everyone should have digital literacy, and digital resources should be available in Indian languages.

• Slogan: "IT (Indian Talent) + IT (Information Technology) = IT (India Tomorrow)".

6. BharatNet

• BharatNet is a programme to lay optical fibre to every gram panchayat (village council area). Optical fibre is a glass cable that carries data as pulses of light at very high speed.
• It is run by Bharat Broadband Network Ltd (BBNL) and funded by the USOF (Universal Service Obligation Fund, a fund collected from telecom companies to pay for rural connectivity).

• The original target was about 2.5 lakh gram panchayats.

• Amended BharatNet Programme (ABP), approved August 2023:

• Target: optical fibre to 2.64 lakh gram panchayats in a ring topology. A ring topology is a loop-shaped network: if one cable is cut, data can go round the other way [4][5].
• Non-GP villages get optical fibre on demand [4][5].
• Cost: ₹1,39,579 crore. This covers routers at block and gram panchayat level (IP-MPLS network: a fast way of routing data) and 10 years of operation and maintenance. Uptime is watched from a Centralised Network Operating Centre (CNOC) [4][5].

• BSNL is the single Project Management Agency for the whole network [4][5].

• Progress:

• 2,18,347 gram panchayats were service-ready by 19 March 2025 [4][5].
• Optical fibre cable length reached 42.13 lakh route km by 25 March 2025 [4][5].

• (NCERT-era target: about 2.5 lakh gram panchayats.)

• Digital divide: the gap between people who have good internet access and digital skills and people who do not.

• By region: rural areas and backward states lag behind urban areas.
• By gender: fewer women own phones or use the internet.
• By terrain: hills (Himalaya, North-East), deserts (Thar), forests and islands (Andaman & Nicobar, Lakshadweep) are costly to cable.
  • Hard terrain → laying fibre and building towers is slow and costly → private companies avoid these areas → government schemes (BharatNet, USOF) and satellite links have to fill the gap.

7. Radio — All India Radio (Akashvani)

Year	Event
1923	Broadcasting begins with the Radio Club of Bombay (now Mumbai, Maharashtra)
1930	The government takes over: Indian State Broadcasting Service
1936	Renamed All India Radio (AIR)
1957	Renamed Akashvani

• AIR broadcasts information, education and entertainment in national, regional and local languages. It also carries special broadcasts on important occasions.
• FM coverage: a central scheme will raise AIR FM coverage from 59% to 66% of India's area and from 68% to 80% of its population [11].
• Community radio: 264 community radio stations were commissioned after 2019 to reach rural audiences [11]. Community radio is a low-power station run by a local community for its own area.

8. Television — Doordarshan

Year	Event
1959	TV broadcasting begins in Delhi, as an experiment
After 1972	More TV centres open in other cities
1976	TV is separated from AIR and becomes Doordarshan (DD)
After INSAT-1A	The national programme (DD1) reaches backward and remote rural areas through satellite

• INSAT (Indian National Satellite System): a series of geostationary satellites run by ISRO. A geostationary satellite sits about 36,000 km above the equator and moves with the Earth, so it always stays over the same spot.

• A satellite → beams one signal over the whole country → ground transmitters and dish antennas pick it up → TV reaches villages with no cable.

• Doordarshan is one of the largest terrestrial networks in the world. A terrestrial network sends signals from towers on the ground.

• Doordarshan Foundation Day is 15 September [12].
• Network size (2024): 35 satellite channels and 66 studio centres. It reaches over 90% of India's population, and nearly 100% through satellite and DTH [9].
• DD FreeDish: India's largest free-to-air DTH platform. DTH (Direct-To-Home) is a satellite signal received straight by a small dish on the house, and free-to-air means no monthly fee.

• It reached 49 million households in 2024 [9] and over 6.5 crore households by 2025 [10].

• Prasar Bharati: India's public broadcaster, set up under the Prasar Bharati Act, 1990. It began work in 1997 and runs both AIR (Akashvani) and Doordarshan.

9. Print media and films

• Newspapers are published in about 100 languages and dialects.

• Most newspapers are in Hindi, followed by English, then Urdu.

• Films: India is the largest producer of feature films in the world. It also makes short films, video feature films and video short films.

• CBFC (Central Board of Film Certification) certifies all Indian and foreign films before they are shown in India.

Prelims Hooks

• Radio timeline: Radio Club of Bombay (1923) → Indian State Broadcasting Service (1930) → All India Radio (1936) → Akashvani (1957).
• TV timeline: Delhi (1959) → expansion after 1972 → separated from AIR as Doordarshan (1976) → DD1 spreads by satellite after INSAT-1A.
• Prasar Bharati Act was passed in 1990 but came into force in 1997. Prasar Bharati runs both AIR and Doordarshan.
• First-class mail (cards, envelopes) travels by air. Second-class mail (book packets, newspapers, periodicals) travels by surface.
• Six mail channels: Rajdhani, Metro, Green, Business, Bulk Mail, Periodical. A trap option may slip in "Express", "Speed" or "Gati".
• Digital India launch date: 1 July 2015. Slogan: IT + IT = IT (Indian Talent + Information Technology = India Tomorrow).
• Amended BharatNet (August 2023): 2.64 lakh gram panchayats in ring topology, with BSNL as the Project Management Agency [4].
• 5G launched on 1 October 2022. India had 1,273.31 million telephone subscribers in February 2026 [2].
• Newspaper languages, by number of papers: Hindi > English > Urdu.
• India has the world's largest postal network, with about 90% of post offices in rural areas [8].

Mains Points

• Communication as a "lifeline" (GS-III, infrastructure):
• Satellites (INSAT) + optical fibre (BharatNet) + mobile networks (4G/5G) → cheaper and wider connectivity → e-governance, DBT (Direct Benefit Transfer), UPI payments and telemedicine reach villages.

• The post office's rural reach (about 1.49 lakh rural offices) makes it a last-mile channel for banking and benefit delivery.

• Digital divide as a regional problem (GS-I, distribution):

• Hilly, desert, forest and island regions, rural areas and women lag behind.
• Causes include high cable-laying costs, low returns for private companies, weak power supply and low digital literacy.

• Responses include BharatNet's ring design and on-demand village links, USOF funding, satellite backhaul and DD FreeDish / community radio for areas without the internet.

• Mass media and national integration:

• AIR and Doordarshan broadcast in national, regional and local languages, and newspapers appear in about 100 languages.
• Together they spread information, education and a shared national identity across India's linguistic diversity.

• Prasar Bharati's autonomy and the growth of private and OTT media raise questions about public-service broadcasting.

• Policy pathway:

• Uniform-rate STD → Digital India (2015) → BharatNet / Amended BharatNet (2023) → 5G (2022).
• Each step shows the state moving from building the network to delivering services on it. Gaps remain in last-mile reliability, uptime and affordability.