The Hindu Business Line : Improving telecom reach in rural areas

TRAI has estimated that the entire country could be covered with a support of Rs 8,000 crore if cellular technology were used compared to over Rs 20,000 crore required if the same task were done by fixed line telephone.

New Delhi , Dec. 13

THE Government is likely to ask interested mobile services providers to bid for offering services in rural areas with support from the Universal Services Obligation (USO) Fund. This is similar to the process followed early this year when bids were invited to set up fixed line telephones in rural households.

Reliance Infocomm, Tata Teleservices and state-owned Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd had won the bids for different areas of the Rs 8,000-crore project.

The proposal to include mobile services within the ambit of USO funding was discussed on Tuesday at a high-powered meeting between top industry executives and senior officials from the Department of Telecom.

The Communication and IT Minister, Mr Dayanidhi Maran, chaired the meeting, which was attended by Mr Ratan Tata, Chairman-cum-Managing Director, Tata Group, Mr Rajan Mittal, Joint Managing Director, Bharti Tele-Ventures, Mr B.K. Modi, Chairman-cum-Managing Director, Spice Telecom, Mr B.D. Khurana of Reliance Infocomm, and Mr Asim Ghosh, Managing Director, Hutchison, among others.

The Cellular Operator's Association of India and the Association of Unified Services Providers of India were also part of the meeting. Industry sources said four options were discussed to increase the penetration of telecommunications in the rural areas. "We have agreed upon the broad framework for rolling out services in rural areas. Now a technical group comprising representatives of each company and the Government will work out the technical details of the policy," they said. The next meeting is likely to take place in 10 days.

Earlier, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India had suggested that USO support might be given to cellular operators wanting to roll out services in rural areas because it will reduce the burden by more than 50 per cent. It had estimated that the entire country could be covered with a support of Rs 8,000 crore if cellular technology were used compared to over Rs 20,000 crore required if the same task were done by fixed line telephone.

An official statement from the Government said the objective of the meeting was to exchange ideas and elicit the views of the service providers on how the infrastructure could be shared for providing wireless based services in the rural areas. In his opening remarks, Mr Maran emphasised the determination of the Government to bridge the digital divide. "We must create infrastructure in rural areas which will take not only telephony but also broadband to villages. The Universal Service Obligation Fund must be efficiently and effectively used for achieving this objective," he said. It was also agreed that sharing of infrastructure would bring down the capital expenditure.