FWT firms seek more time for rural sops

Even as mobile operators are on a bidding war to operate mobile services in rural India, telecom operators who offer fixed telephony based on wireless technology are in a quandary.

They have asked the government for an extension of the March 31 deadline for completing the rollout of rural telecom infrastructure for providing consumers with a fixed line wireless phone. Under the agreement, the telcos would get subsidy for the number of subscribers they would be able to add till March 31st for the next three years.

"Our members are not really seeking time extension of the period of the agreement which is valid for a period of five years from the effective date. All that is being requested is to extend the time for providing new Rural Direct Exchange Lines (RDELS) beyond the cut-off period of March 31," Association of Unified Telecom Service Providers of India (AUSPI) ,which represents Reliance Communications and Tata Teleservices, said in a letter to Universal Service Obligation (USO) Fund administrator Shantanu Consul.