The Hindu Business Line : ‘Green’ push to rural telecom

New Delhi, July 7 The Department of Telecom has decided to offer financial support from the Universal Services Obligation fund to telecom players using renewable source of energy to power their base stations in rural areas.

The DoT has launched a scheme whereby it will give Rs 50 lakh per installation for mobile towers running on solar or wind or any other type of renewable energy.

Pilot scheme

The scheme has been launched on a pilot basis for 20 areas and is limited to infrastructure companies who had earlier won the contract for rolling out 8,000 cellular towers in 500 districts.

Tower companies including Reliance Infratel, GTL, National Information Technologies and Vodafone Essar are eligible to apply for the subsidy.

“The telecom service providers across the country have been using renewable energy sources, especially solar installations, for powering individual mobile infrastructure sites; however the effectiveness of renewable energy for the larger power requirement of a shared mobile infrastructure site under rugged rural and remote area conditions is yet to be established.

The objective of this scheme is to establish the technical feasibility and financial viability for renewable energy systems in shared mobile infrastructure sites in rural areas,” said a DoT note.

USO funding

This pilot project would involve the tower company providing requisite renewable energy infrastructure with the assistance of a renewable energy vendor who shall provide technological support and execute the installation work.

The USO fund will fund 75 per cent of the project with a maximum ceiling of Rs 50 lakh per pilot.

The vendor for hybrid (solar plus wind) installation will have to be approved by the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy.

The pilot project will have to be completed within 12 weeks after the agreement with the DoT is signed. The tower firm can also charge a fee from mobile operators that use its infrastructure.

There are villages where the grid has not even reached, and even electrified villages do not receive reliable and stable supply.

The poor power quality substantially increases the capital expenditure and operating expenditure of telecom installations and also leads to unsatisfactory quality of services.

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