USOF Activities
Implimentation Status
1 PUBLIC ACCESS
- Table I-A : State-wise Status of Village Public Telephone (VPTs) as on 31.07.2014
- Table I-B :Technology-wise detail of Village Public Telephone (VPTs) as on 31.07.2014
1.1 Village Public Telephones
Financial support has been provided/ being provided from USO Fund for provision of Village Public Telephones (VPTs) in inhabited revenue villages of the country as per Census 2001. VPTs have already been provided in about 98% of inhabited revenue villages. VPTs are being provided in remaining inhabited revenue villages through on-going USOF funded scheme of VPTs in newly identified uncovered villages as per Census 2001.
1.1 (a) Provisioning of VPTs under Bharat Nirman-I
Agreements were signed with BSNL in November 2004 to provide subsidy support for provision of VPTs in 62,302 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 has been included as one of activities under Bharat NirmanProgramme. 62,101 VPTs have been provided under this scheme till the closure of rollout period on 31.08.2012. Validity of the agreements for the scheme has also expired on 09.11.2012. Remaining villages of the scheme would be provided with VPT facility under USOF scheme of VPTs in newly identified uncovered villages as per Census 2001.
1.1 (b) USOF Scheme for VPTs in newly identified uncovered villages as per Census 2001:
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-I. All the remaining 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 under this scheme. Agreements in this regard were signed with BSNL on 27.02.2009.Rollout period for the scheme is up to September 2013.
1.1 (c) Replacement of MARR based VPTs (MARR-A & MARR-B)
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 47,075 MARR VPTs already replaced before 30.06.2003 (MARR-B) and 1,38,046 MARR VPTs to be replaced from 01.07.2003 onwards (MARR-A).
A total number of 1,84,799 MARR VPTs (99.83%) have been replaced till the closure of the scheme on 30.06.2012. Remaining villages of the scheme would be provided with VPT facility under USOF scheme of VPTs in newly identified uncovered villages as per Census 2001.
The State-wise Achievements of replacement of MARR VPTs under the scheme is given in
1.2 Provision of Rural Community Phones
46,253 villages with population exceeding 2,000 and without a Public phone facility are being provided with a Rural Community Phone (RCP). Agreements were signed with M/s BSNL and M/s RIL in September 2004 to provide 24,822 and 21,431 RCPs respectively in these villages over a period of three years i.e. by 30.09.2007. These installations are eligible for both Capital and Operational expenses. The number of RCPs to be provided has subsequently been revised as 40694 [BSNL: 21958, RIL: 18736].
2. INDIVIDUAL ACCESS
2.1 RDELs (01.04.05 to 31.03.07)
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) to be installed during the period 01.04.2005 to 31.03.2007. These RDELs were to be installed in 1685 Short Distance Charging Areas (SDCAs) [BSNL: 1267, RIL: 203, TTSL: 172, TTML: 43] where cost of providing telephone connections is more than the revenue earned. Support in the form of front loaded subsidy is being given for all the lines (RDELs) installed from 01.04.2005 to 31.03.2007. The equated annual subsidy where payable, shall be given up to a maximum period of validity of the Agreement (Five years) and validity period ends in March, 2010. Subsequently the cutoff date for installation of the RDELs was extended to 31.3.2010.
- The details of the SDCAs where RDELs are to be provided are given in Table IV.
- The achievements of RDELs are given inTable V.
2.2 RDELs (01.04.02 to 31.03.05)
Support is also being extended for 18.65 lakhs rural lines installed between 01.04.2002 and 31.03.2005 at the same rates as applicable for the RDELs at i) above. Agreements to this effect were signed with M/s BSNL and M/s RIL in May 2005 & August 2005. The equated annual subsidy is to be given for a maximum period of five years from the date of installation of these RDELs. One time front loaded subsidy is payable only for net addition of rural household DELs. 2.3 RDELs (Prior to 01.04.02)
Support has been extended to nearly 90.5 lakhs rural household Direct Exchange Lines (RDELs) installed prior to 01.04.2002 towards the rental differential between the TRAI prescribed rental and the rental charged by the Service Provider. The support was for the limited period of 01.04.2002 to 31.01.2004. The Access Deficit Regime has come into operation from 01.02.2004.
2.4 RDELs (Prior to 01.04.2002) – In lieu of Phasing out of ADC
Based on the recommendations of TRAI, Indian Telegraph Rules (ITR) have already been amended to provide subsidy support to the eligible operators for operational sustainability of Rural Wireline Household DELs installed prior to 01.04.2002 in lieu of ADC being phased out, This support shall be provided for a period 3 years subject to a ceiling of Rs. 2000 Crore per annum for the country.
2.5 Shared Mobile Infrastructure Scheme
A scheme has been launched by USO Fund to provide subsidy support for setting up and managing 7,353 [revised from 7871] infrastructure sites/ towers 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 agreements effective from 01.06.2007 were signed with the successful bidders in May 2007, which are valid till November, 2013.
The State-wise number of towers to be set up under this scheme and the towers commissioned are given in
- Table VI-A - State wise status of towers under USOF scheme on the closure date.(30.11.2013)
- Table VI-B - IP wise status of towers under USOF scheme on the closure date.(30.11.2013)
2.6 Rural Wire-line Broadband Scheme
Agreement has been signed with BSNL on 20.01.09 to provide 8,61,459 wire-line Broadband connections to individual users and Government Institutions from 27,789 DSLAMs, installed at existing rural and remote exchanges over a period of 5-years, i.e., by 2014.
Status of implementation of Broadband Agreement is given in
- Broadband connectons provided by BSNL under USOF up to Jan 15
- Installation report of BB Kiosk under USOF agreement up to Jan 15
- PCs installation report up to Jan 15
- BB Cconnections provided in NE by BSNL under USOF scheme up to Jan 15
2.7 OFC Assam
(Scheme for Augmentation, Creation and Management of Intra-District SDHQ-DHQ OFC Network for Transport of Rural/Remote Area Traffic on Bandwith Sharing Basis in the Service Area Assam) USOF has taken the initiative to address the non-availability of sufficient back-haul capacity to integrate the voice and data traffic from the access network in the rural areas to their core network. To begin with OFC connectivity between Block Head Quarters & District Head Quarters is being addressed. The tender for Assam was floated on 30.10.2009 and BSNL was declared successful and subsequently, an Agreement has been signed with BSNL on 12.02.2010 to implement the scheme in Assam. This OFC Scheme has been undertaken on BOO model, i.e. build, operate & own basis, and accordingly, BSNL would build, operate, own and manage all the equipment/infrastructure for the provisioned intra-district augmented/created OFC Transport network. All locations shall be connected on physical OFC Ring Route(s) with the DHQ node ensuring the cable route diversity and ring capacity of at least 2.5 Gbps, with the capability to efficiently transport various protocols, including TDM, IP, Frame Relay, ATM, etc., for integrated voice, data and video signals. At least 70% of the subsidized bandwidth capacity, created under the scheme, shall be shared with the licensed service providers in the area of ASSAM at a rate not more that 26.22% of the current TRAI ceiling tariffs.As on 31.12.2011, 174 nodes have been installed so far (Out of 354). Rollout has been extended up to 11.08.2012 with LD.
After Assam, NE Circles (comprising States of Meghalaya, Manipur, Tripura, Mizoram, Arunachal Pradesh, & Nagaland) are being taken up for implementation. In this regards, bids stand invited and Railtel has emerged as L 1 bidder.
OFC North East-I and North East-II
(Augmentation, Creation and Management of OFC Network In NorthEast-I & II) Agreements have been entered into with M/s RailTel Corporation of India Limited (Host Operator) for subsidy support from USO fund for augmentation, creation and management of intra-district SDHQ – DHQ OFC network for transport of rural / remote area traffic on bandwidth sharing basis in the North East-I&II circles. The Host Operator shall set up and Provide (i.e. procure, install, test, commission), Build and Own, Operate, Maintain and Manage the augmented and created OFC transport network and associated infrastructure required for effective provision of bandwidth on sharing basis in all districts of constituent states viz. Meghalaya, Mizoram, and Tripura, of North East - I Circle and Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur and Nagaland of North East – II Circle. The effective date of both Agreements is 16th January, 2012 and the Agreements are valid for eight years from the effective date. During the validity of the Agreement, the Host Operator shall share at least 70% the bandwidth augmented and created under the scheme in the OFC transport network of the licensed service providers in the areas of North East-I& II Circles, for providing telecom services to rural/remote areas at prescribed rates and as per the terms and conditions of this Agreement.