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Thomas K Thomas

TCIL to carry out survey

New Delhi June 18 After successfully completing the bidding process for rural cellular project, the Department of Telecom is now planning to offer support from the Universal Services Obligation fund to companies sharing their fixed line backbone with other operators in rural areas.

The move is primarily aimed at getting the State-owned Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd to unbundle its nationwide copper and optical fibre cable network and allow private mobile operators to ride on it to offer telecom services in rural areas. The financial support from the USO fund will be offered to BSNL and any other companies, which want to share their infrastructure.

The money will be used to upgrade their network so as to make it capable for sharing. DoT has mandated Telecommunications Council of India Ltd (TCIL) to carry out a nationwide survey to find out where such cables are available and who owns it.

"We want to offer incentives to companies, which share their infrastructure. It doesn't make sense to set up a new network in rural areas when an operator already has spare capacity on their network. The support from USO fund can be given to upgrade their infrastructure on condition that they share their network with other operators," senior DoT sources said. Apart from the financial support, operators willing to share their network will be allowed to take a fee from other operators for using its network.

Backhaul connectivity is used by mobile operators to connect their base stations and mobile towers situated in far-flung areas. Since spectrum is a scarce resource, most operators prefer to carry such long haul traffic through cable. However, most of the fixed line network in the country, especially in rural areas, is owned by BSNL, which is no mood to share it with other operators.

While the USO fund has made elaborate plans to set up about 18,000 towers across the country to offer mobile connectivity to remote villages, backhaul link is a major concern for the operators who have been mandated to complete the project.

Without an assured backhaul link, the operators may find it difficult to interconnect their cell sites especially in remote villages.

"Backhaul is an important aspect, which was not covered in the USO sponsored cellular project for covering 2.5 lakh villages. Therefore, we are taking up a separate project, with help from TCIL, to make sure that the cellular coverage is not impacted due to lack of backhaul network," said a DoT official. They said that in case the offer from the USO fund finds no takers then a new national network can be laid by the Government, which will be given to operators on sharing basis.

Related Stories:
DoT plans USO scheme for rural mobile telephony
To bring down USO subsidy by over 65 pc — TRAI favours rural connectivity through mobile infrastructure

More Stories on : Telecommunications | Rural Development | Infrastructure

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