Ajay Bhattacharya

RURAL TELECOM MARKET OPPORTUNITIES AND ISSUES: STRATEGIES & SOLUTIONS .. ... ... ... ... .... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... .... . .. ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... .... ... ... ... ... ... GOVERNMENT INITIATIVES AND PROGRAMMES ................................................................................................ - AJAY BHATTACHARYA ADMINISTRATOR USO FUND DEPARTMENT OF TELECOMMUNICATIONS MINISTRY OF COMMUNICATIONS & IT DATE : 15 SEPTEMBER 2009

USO FUND – ACTS AND RULES V  USO Fund was created in the year 2002 with the objective to provide access to basic telegraph services to people in rural and remote areas at affordable and reasonable prices.  Originally the thrust was on public & individual access which included Village Public Telephones (VPTs), Rural Community Phones (RCPs) and provision of Rural lines to individual users (RDELs).  In December, 2006 Telegraph Act was amended to broaden the scope of USO Fund. Activities of shared infrastructure, mobile services, broadband connectivity, general infrastructure like OFC augmentation were included.  Indian Telegraph Rules have been amended in 2004, 2006 and 2008 for implementation of USOF activities. 2

BHARAT NIRMAN (1) USO FUND BACKGROUND BHARAT NIRMAN - - LEVY  Funded through Universal Access Levy @ 5% of Adjusted Gross Revenue (AGR) from all Service Providers except the pure value added service providers like Internet, Voice Mail, E-mail service providers etc.  Levy amount is credited to Consolidated Fund of India and made available to USOF after due appropriation by the Parliament. 3

VPTs IN ALL INHABITED VILLAGES  Support currently being provided for about 5,58,000 existing VPTs including VPTs under Bharat Nirman.  VPTs in all the remaining inhabited uncovered villages as per Census 2001 shall also be provided by BSNL with subsidy support from USO Fund.  This includes villages with population less than 100, remote & inaccessible locations etc.  The remaining villages are likely to be provided with VPTs by Feb’2011.  94.3% of the inhabited villages provided with VPTs so far. 4

SHARED MOBILE INFRASTRUCTURE SCHEME  7440 (Revised) Towers spread over 500 districts in 27 states to be set up for providing mobile services  Villages with more than 2000 population covered.  Most of the remaining towers likely to be set up by September 2009.  Sharing of infrastructure by 3 service providers.  Capacity creation of about 24 million lines.  Infrastructure to be utilized for broadband connectivity. 5

BROADBAND CONNECTIVITY  Agreement with BSNL has been signed on 20.01. 20.01.2009 to provide 8,61,459 broadband 61, connections (512 Kbps Always On) from its 28,000 28, rural exchanges. exchanges.  Broadband to individual users, Government institutes and one Kiosk per exchange for public access. access.  Plan to provide wireless broadband connectivity to approx. approx. 2 lakh villages in 5000 blocks using existing infrastructure. infrastructure.  Broadband coverage to remaining villages shall be extended in a phased manner. manner. 6

FORTHCOMING SCHEMES  Second Phase of Mobile Infrastructure scheme  Optical Fibre connectivity  Broadband Connectivity on Wireless  Broadband connectivity on Satellite  Pilot Projects  Submarine connectivity for Islands 7

THANK YOU 8

Ajay Bhattacharya

by Varun Chandra

Accessibility

Categories

Upload Details

Usage Rights

Statistics