Of the Rs 4,000 crore accruing to the USO fund, only about Rs 700 crore had been released so far, said official sources at the meeting of the coordination committee on information and communication and broadcasting technologies (ICE) sectors held in the Planning Commission today.The officials said the slow release of funds posed a problem.
The USO fund was created to encourage the growth of telecommunication services in the rural areas. All the telecom service providers contribute about 5 per cent of their revenue as a contribution to this fund.
It was pointed out in the meeting that 75 per cent telecommunication coveragecould be achieved over the next five years, if free spectrum, free bandwidth and automatic clearance was given.
About 85 per cent of villages have been provided with public telephones.
However, it would not be possible to provide concessional tariff if USO was to fund the programme. The USO would give priority to shared broadband access to rural areas, official sources said.
BSNL has 30,000 exchanges in rural areas connected to the optic fibre network. Their reach could be expanded by using wireless technology.
The issue of the cost of broadband was also discussed and the Budget for 2005-06 was likely to revise the rates downwards, they added.
There was also a proposal to provide spectrum and broadband free of cost in rural areas.
The Planning Commission said that technological upgradation should be built into the roadmap for rural service providers and the integrated plan of action should include entertainment. Internet penetration, broadband and rural connectivity were identified as thrust areas.
The recommendations on unified licensing are expected to be submitted to the government in a fortnight, while the spectrum policy recommendations are expected to be out in a month, said sources.
