The Hindu Business Line : Pvt operators allowed to use BSNL facilities in rural areas

CHANGING its stance, the Communications and IT Ministry said on Thursday that it would allow private telecom operators to share infrastructure set up by the State-owned Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd for providing services in rural areas.

"Private operators have now started moving out in rural areas and the Government will allow them to have the benefit of sharing facilities of BSNL to facilitate better economic viability and speedier rollout of mobile services," the IT Minister, Mr Dayanidhi Maran, said during the Question Hour in the Lok Sabha.

Replying to a question asked by Mr V. K. Thummar, the Minister said, "There has been a huge demand for BSNL services, leading to a shortage of infrastructure. But the PSU has already started installing more base stations and by January-end next year, the process will be completed."

Earlier, the Communication Ministry had ruled out the possibility of allowing the private operators to take advantage of BSNL's nationwide network. Mr Maran had said that private operators must build their own infrastructure and compete with BSNL. BSNL is opposed to sharing its infrastructure on the grounds that it was its USP.

Mr Maran added that though no targets have been fixed for the expansion of mobile telephone services in rural areas, it is expected that most villages with a population of more than 2,000 would be covered by a mobile network by the end of 2007. He said the Government has set an ambitious target of 250 million telephone connections by 2007 and BSNL alone will be adding 14.2 million new lines this fiscal.

On the next generation mobile service called 3G, Mr Maran said no timeframe has been fixed for the introduction of the technology. He, however, indicated that its rollout may begin next fiscal.

DoT is examining the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India's (TRAI) recommendations on telecom services in rural India. The Minister said that major beneficiaries of the Universal Obligation Fund (USO) included BSNL (Rs 762.99 crore), Reliance Infocomm (Rs 3.71 crore) and Tatas (Rs 0.89 crore) during 2005-06.

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