Subsidy Under USO fund

A total of Rs. 12771.44 crore has been allocated to USO (Universal Service Obligation) Fund since its inception out of which Rs. 11258.47 crore has been disbursed as on 30.06.2010.

There has been some delay in the provision of telecom services under some of the USO Fund schemes on account of various reasons like remoteness of locations, law and order problems, non availability/irregular availability of electricity connection etc. Considering the ground realities and difficulties / problems being faced by the Service Providers in achieving the targets, extensions in the roll out period have been given to the Universal Service Providers in some of the schemes for the fulfilment of their roll out obligations.

As the basic objective of USO Fund is to provide accessibility of telecom services to people in the rural and remote areas at affordable and reasonable prices, initially the roll out period was extended for service providers without imposing Liquidated Damages keeping in view the difficulties being faced by the Service Providers in rolling out the services such as remoteness, difficult terrain, insurgency related issues etc. However, the settlement of subsidy claims in respect of the Multi Access Radio Relay (MARR) Village Public Telephones (VPTs) provided after March 2009, Rural Community Phones (RCPs) provided after December 2008 in case of Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) and March 2009 in case of Reliance Infocom Limited (RIL), VPTs under Bharat Nirman provided after November 2009 and towers provided under Shared Mobile infrastructure Scheme Phase I after December 2009, has been done after imposition of the Liquidated Damage (LD) charges to the extent of Rs. 6.05 crore as on 31.03.2010 as per the terms and conditions of the Agreement. The following work has been undertaken under various schemes:

SCHEME FOR EXISTING VPTs: Agreements were signed with M/s BSNL and six Private Basic Service Operators (PBSOs) in March 2003 for operation and maintenance of existing Village Public Telephones (VPTs) in the country in the identified revenue villages as per Census 1991. In addition, subsidy support is also admissible for the VPTs installed in additional revenue villages as per census 2001. As on 30.06.2010, about 5.69 lakh villages i.e. 95.98% of the about 5.93 lakh inhabited revenue villages as per Census 2001 are already covered with Village Public Telephones (VPTs) including the VPTs being provided under para ii) & iii) below. The remaining inhabited villages are likely to be provided with VPT facility in a phased manner by February 2011.

SCHEME FOR VPTs UNDER BHARAT NIRMAN: Agreements were signed with M/s BSNL in November 2004 to provide subsidy support for provision of VPTs in 62302 (revised from 66822) no. of uncovered villages in the country excluding those villages having population less than 100, those lying in deep forests and those affected with insurgency. The provision of VPTs in these villages was included as one of activities under Phase I of the Bharat Nirman Programme. As on 30.06.2010, 61718 i.e. 99.06% VPTs have been provided under this scheme.

SCHEME FOR NEWLY IDENTIFIED VPTs: Reconciliation of the VPTs working in the inhabited villages as per Census 2001 was carried out taking into account the existing VPT and those provided under Bharat Nirman. All the remaining 62443 inhabited villages as on 01.10.2007 as per Census 2001 irrespective of criteria of population, remoteness, accessibility and law &order situations have been included for provision of VPTs with subsidy support from USO Fund. Agreements in this regard have been signed with BSNL on 27.02.2009. As on 30.06.2010, 39281 VPTs out of the 62443 i.e. 62.9% VPTs have been provided under this scheme.

Replacement of MARR based VPTs: Agreements were signed with M/s BSNL in the year 2003 for replacement of 1,85,121 number of VPTs with reliable technologies, which were earlier working on Multi Access Radio Relay (MARR) technology and installed before 01.04.2002. These included 47075 MARR VPTs already replaced before 30.06.2003 and 138046 MARR VPTs to be replaced from 01.07.2003 onwards. A total number of 1, 84,521 MARR VPTs (99.7%) have been replaced as on 30.06.2010.

Provision of Rural Community Phones (RCPs): Agreements were signed on 30.09.2004 for providing 40,694 Rural Community Phones (RCPs) [BSNL: 21,958, RIL: 18,736] in villages with population more than 2000 and not having PCO facility. All of these 40694 RCPs have been provided by 28.02.2010.

Support for RDELs installed after 01.04.2005: Agreements were signed with M/s BSNL, M/s RIL, M/s TTL and M/s TTL (MH) in March 2005 for installation of Rural Household Direct Exchange Lines (RDELs) during the period 01.04.2005 to 31.03.2007. These RDELs were to be installed in 1685 Short Distance Charging Areas (SDCAs), where cost of providing telephone was more than the revenue earned. Subsequently the cut off date for installation of the RDELs was extended to 31.03.2010. Till the date of closing of the scheme i.e. 31.03.2010, about 79.3 Lakh RDELs have been provided with subsidy support from USO Fund.

Shared Mobile Infrastructure Scheme (Phase-I): A scheme was launched by USO Fund to provide subsidy support for setting up and managing 7387 number of infrastructure sites/ towers (revised from 7871) in 500 districts spread over 27 states for provision of mobile services in the specified rural and remote areas, where there was no existing fixed wireless or mobile coverage. Villages or cluster of villages having population of 2000 or more and not having mobile coverage were taken into consideration for installation of the tower under this scheme. The infrastructure so created is being shared by three service providers for provision of mobile services. The agreements effective from 01.06.2007 were signed with the successful bidders in May 2007. As on 30.06.2010, 7183 towers i.e. about 97.25% have been set up under this scheme. Utilizing the infrastructure so created, BTSs are being commissioned and mobile services started by different Universal Service Providers in a phased manner.

Wire line Broadband Connectivity for Rural Areas: An Agreement was signed with BSNL on 20.01.09 to provide about 8.88 lakh wire-line Broadband connections to individual users and Government Institutions and about 28000 number of kiosks over a period of 5-years. As on 31.05.2010, 142906 broadband connections have been provided in the rural and remote areas under this scheme.

Creation of General Infrastructure like OFC in Rural Areas: With a view to provide sufficient back-haul capacity to integrate the voice and data traffic from the access network in the rural areas to their core network, USOF has formulated a scheme for augmentation of OFC Network between the blocks' HQ and Districts' HQ. The aim is to create bulk bandwidth and make available the same to other service providers on sharing basis at the prescribed rates. The State of Assam has been taken up first for implementation under this scheme. The Agreement to this effect has been signed with BSNL on 12.02.2010

Pilot Projects: Support is being provided for mobile charging stations in 5000 villages through TERI project of Lighting a Billion Lives (LaBL). The Agreement to this effect has been signed on 29.04.2010. The solar mobile charging stations in these 5000 villages are to be provided in a phased manner over a period of two years from the date of signing of the Agreement. Support is also being considered for renewable energy resources (Solar, Wind, Hybrid solutions) for 28 existing USOF supported Shared Infrastructure sites on pilot basis, one in each state. The Agreements are likely to be signed shortly. Support is also being extended for Pilot projects to establish new technological developments in the telecom sector, which can be deployed in the rural & remote area.



This information was given by the Minister of State for Communications & Information Technology, Shri Sachin Pilot in written reply to a question in Lok Sabha today.

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AT/AS
(Release ID :64398)