Financial Daily from THE HINDU group of publications
Thursday, Apr 14, 2005
Financial Daily from THE HINDU group of publications Thursday, Apr 14, 2005 |
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Info-Tech
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Telecommunications Industry & Economy - Rural Development Cell operators may roll out rural networks — Telegraph Act likely to be amended, says Dayanidhi Maran Our Bureau
The Minister for IT and Communications, Mr Dayanidhi Maran, with the Secretary, Mr Brijesh Kumar, addressing a press conference in the Capital on Wednesday. - Kamal Narang
New Delhi , April 13 THE Government is considering amending the Telegraph Act to facilitate mobile operators roll out networks in rural areas by sharing infrastructure that is funded by the Universal Service Obligation (USO) Fund. "We have discussed the matter with the USO Fund Administrator and are working out the details. We are looking at Telegraph Act amendment to accommodate basic, cellular and other wireless technologies. The idea is to put towers in rural areas so cellular and CDMA lines can reach villages," the Communications and IT Minister, Mr Dayanidhi Maran, said here. The aim is to take the telephone connectivity to villages, highways and rail lines, Mr Maran said. So far, Rs 1,841.50 crore has been made available to operators for rural telephony, of which, Rs 1,341.50 crore has been provided during 2004-05. For 2005-06, a provision of Rs 1,200 crore has been made for USO support. When contacted, Mr Shyamal Ghosh, Administrator USO Fund, said, "The move will facilitate mobile operators to roll out rural networks by sharing infrastructure funded by USO. The sharable infrastructure includes towers." Recent steps taken for rural telephony under USO Fund include replacement of 1.84 lakh multi access radio relay (MARR)-based village public telephones, of which 1.15 lakh VPTs have already been replaced and the remaining would be replaced by mid-2006. Agreements have also been signed for installation of 66,822 VPTs in the remaining uncovered villages. About 1,500 of these villages have been provided VPTs. Agreements for a second public phone in 46,253 villages were signed in September 2004 and 1,917 of these have been installed. Five per cent of the revenue share, given by telecom companies to the Government, currently goes towards USO Fund.
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