News · By ILA Infra · 2 min read
170 of Dehradun district's villages still have no BSNL network, October 2026: what it means for hill homes and homestays
BSNL told a district meeting on 15 October 2026 that 170 of Dehradun district's 767 villages still have no BSNL connectivity, and that broadband is down in 69 gram panchayats because of cut
What the meeting heard
170 villages without BSNL. Doon Horizon reported on 15 October 2026 that at a meeting of the district telecom committee and the National Broadband Mission, BSNL officers said 597 of the district's 767 villages have connectivity and 170 do not.
19 shadow areas. District Magistrate Dr. Ashish Chauhan ordered telecom companies and BSNL to bring mobile signal to all 19 shadow areas (dead zones) before the code of conduct for the coming assembly elections takes effect. Twelve of the 19 are in the Chakrata assembly segment and seven in the hilly parts of the Mussoorie segment. He told the companies to bring any revenue or forest land problems with tower sites straight to the administration, and said files would be cleared within 24 hours.
Forest land is the hold-up. The report said towers have been held up by forest rules in the forests between Kuanwala and Lachhiwala, Dandi and Rishikesh, Raiwala and Haripur Kalan, and Daudwala and Dudhli. Proposals for new 4G towers at Phulsani, Dirnad and Silla have been sent to the government. Under the 4G saturation scheme, work is done in 22 of 24 approved gram panchayats; one each in Raipur and Sahaspur is stuck for want of forest land clearance.
BharatNet fibre is cut. Of the 209 gram panchayats connected by optical fibre in BharatNet's first phase, broadband is down in 69 because the cable has been cut, the report said. In the second phase, work is done in 189 of 228 panchayats.
What it means for hill-property buyers and hosts
This section is our view.
Check the signal before you buy. A cottage in Chakrata or the Mussoorie hills with no mobile signal is a different property from one with 4G. Visit with phones on two or three networks, check inside the house as well as on the road, and ask neighbours how it holds up in the monsoon.
For homestays, network is a booking issue. Guests book online, pay online and expect to be reachable. A homestay in a dead zone needs a landline or satellite broadband plan, and should say so honestly in its listing. Our post on GMVN's guest-house occupancy shows how booking-driven the business has become.
Work-from-hills buyers, ask about fibre. If you plan to work from a hill home, ask whether the village is on BharatNet and whether its fibre is actually working. The report shows a connected panchayat on paper may have no broadband in practice.
Roads and network often arrive together. Our post on PMGSY's 528 new village roads covers the other half of hill connectivity.
To see properties in the hills, browse property in Uttarakhand on ILA Infra.
Sources
Buying or selling property in Dehradun and unsure about the paperwork? Call Neeraj Thapa on +91 98320 03494.
How we write these: the ILA Infra team reads the reports listed under Sources and links every one, so you can check each figure yourself. The section on what it means for buyers is our own view, not advice.
