Mobile access scheme for remote areas soon
The government is planning to unveil a new
scheme to provide mobile phone access to over 55,000 villages, particularly
those in border states and in the Himalayan region, to push forward its
flagship Digital India programme. The scheme will be funded by the Universal
Service Obligation Fund (USOF).
Background:
As per official data about 4,700 villages in
Himalayan States (Jammu & Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand), and
2,138 villages in Border States (Rajasthan, Gujarat, Punjab and Haryana) are not
yet connected.
- Further, 5,41,939 villages out of total 5,97,608 villages in the country are already covered with mobile services, leaving 55,669 villages, i.e., 9.31%, without coverage.
- Among states, Odisha has the highest number of villages (10,398) which do not have mobile coverage, followed by Jharkhand (5,949) and Madhya Pradesh (5,926), Maharashtra (4,792) and Chhattisgarh. In states such as Kerala and Karnataka all villages have coverage.
Universal Service Obligation Fund:
USOF, established in 2002, provides effective
subsidies to ensure telegraph services are provided to everyone across India,
especially in the rural and remote areas. It is headed by the USOF
Administrator who reports to the Secretary, Department of Telecommunications
(DoT).
- Funds come from the Universal Service Levy (USL) of 5% charged from all the telecom operators on their Adjusted Gross Revenue (AGR) which are then deposited into the Consolidated Fund of India, and require prior parliamentary approval to be dispatched.
- The USOF works through a bidding process, where funds are given to the enterprise quoting the lowest bid. However, the funds for NOFN were made an exception to this process since BBNL was the sole party involved in the implementation having being specifically created for it.
- As on date, the total available fund in USOF is more than Rs.47,411.56 crore. The total collection since the scheme was started in 2002-03 stands at about Rs.78,587.31 crore, while total amount disbursed for various initiatives to boost rural connectivity is about Rs.31,175.75 crore, according to government data.
