Transcript Document

Recommendations of National
Advisory Council on Telecom
services in North East
Department of Telecommunications
18 April, 2013
TELE-DENSITY IN NORTH-EAST INDIA
As on
North East
(Except Assam & Sikkim)
Assam
URBAN
All India
RURAL OVERALL URBAN RURAL OVERALL URBAN
RURAL
OVERALL
March
2008
76.29
4.44
14.74
64.59
5.42
19.32
66.39
9.46
26.22
March
2009
86.98
9.36
20.65
89.46
9.70
28.59
88.84
15.11
36.98
March
2010
96.55
18.47
29.99
100.09
25.36
43.22
119.45
24.31
52.74
March
2011
124.46
23.93
38.98
132.55
32.36
56.50
156.93
33.83
70.89
March
2012
148.54
28.35
46.61
153.90
37.38
65.72
169.17
39.26
78.66
January
2013
132.93
30.49
46.24
148.22
39.83
66.37
148.12
40.11
73.07
2
INTERNET / BROADBAND PENETRATION
IN NORTH EAST INDIA
As on
Dec 2012
(in million)
Internet
Connections
Broadband
Connections
(speed =>256
kbps)
3
Assam
North East
(Except
Assam &
Sikkim)
All India
0.11
(0.43%)
0.13
(0.51%)
25.33
0.01
(0.07%)
0.07
(0.47%)
14.98
COVERAGE OF VILLAGE PUBLIC TELEPHONES IN NORTH
EASTERN STATES
4
S. No.
State
No. of
inhabited
Villages as
per Census
2001
Villages
provided
with VPTs
No. of
villages
without
VPTs
1.
Assam
25,124
24,679
445
2.
Meghalaya
5,782
5,106
676
3.
Mizoram
707
704
3
4.
Tripura
858
858
0
5.
Manipur
2,315
2,171
144
6.
Arunachal
Pradesh
3,863
2,774
1,089
7.
Nagaland
1,278
1,263
15
8.
Sikkim
450
429
28
40,377
37,084
2,141
Total
MOBILE COVERAGE STATUS IN NORTH EASTERN STATES
5
S. No.
State
No. of
inhabited
Villages as
per Census
2001
No. of
Villages with
mobile
coverage by
one or more
operators
No. of
villages
without
mobile
coverage
1.
Assam
25,124
22,148
2,976
2.
Meghalaya
5,782
2,525
3,257
3.
Mizoram
707
123
584
4.
Tripura
858
678
180
5.
Manipur
2,315
1,275
1,040
6.
Arunachal
Pradesh
3,863
1,481
2,382
7.
Nagaland
1,278
827
451
8.
Sikkim
450
437
13
Total
40,377
29,494
10,883
Telecommunications in the North-East
Plan for uncovered villages
• Village Public Telephone (VPT) facility by Sept.
2013 with subsidy support from USOF.
• Scheme to cover uncovered villages with mobile
network
– USOF MoU with C-DOT on 1st November, 2012
– Preparation of mobile network plan for benchmarking
subsidy.
– Financial approvals and award of work expected to be
completed by 31st March 2014.
Telecommunications in the North-East
Augmentation of OFC network
• To strengthen OFC network at the district and block level
• To provide sufficient back-haul capacity to integrate the
traffic from the access network to the core network.
• Network to be shared with other Telecom Operators at
prescribed rates.
S.
No.
Item
Assam
NE-I
(Meghalaya,
Tripura,
Mizoram)
NE-II
(Arunachal
Pradesh, Manipur,
Nagaland)
1
2
No of Districts
No of Nodes to be
connected
Agreement period
Project Capital
Cost
Operator
(executive
Agency)
27
354
19
188
30
407
7 years
8 years
Rs.161.38 Cr.
8 years
Rs.434.67 Cr.
BSNL
RailTel
RailTel
Rs.98.89 Cr.
Rs.89.50 Cr.
Rs.298.50 Cr.
Rs.3.10 Cr.
Rs.17.90 Cr.
Rs.59.70 Crore
302 nodes
installed
Work under
progress
Work under progress
3
4
5
6
7
8
8
Subsidy outlay
from USOF
Projections for BE
2013-14
Progress
Recommendations of NAC
• Telecom Plan for North East
– National Optical Fibre Network (NOFN) to connect all 8117
Panchayats in North East with optical fibre.
• Survey work by Railtel nearing completion.
• Tenders issued for optical fibre by BBNL.
• RailTel to issue tender notice for laying of fibre and ducting
on 15th April, 2013.
– Comprehensive Telecom Plan
• BSNL Plan of Rs 19,642 crore in two phases.
• USOF & DoNER expressed inability to fund plan of this size
• Planning Commission suggested on 19.11.2012 to make
detailed analysis to identify present gap and investment
requirement.
• TRAI requested to identify gap and prepare investment plan
Recommendations of NAC
• Core optical fibre connectivity
– Scheme for augmenting OFC connectivity at district &
block level under implementation.
– In-principle approval granted for OFC connectivity from
Akhaura near Agartala to Akhaura town in Bangladesh
where PoP of BTCL available.
– Alternate way for routing traffic from North East.
– Issue taken up with MEA for laying 15 km OFC cable in
Bangladesh territory & methodology for maintenance of
network.
Recommendations of NAC
• Use of appropriate technology.
– Rollout of services by BWA licencees expected in the next
two years.
– Implementation of NOFN by next year.
– DoNER can initiate advance planning for last mile
connectivity to village institutions.
– New technology for BTSs with low power consumption on
TEC GR being attempted in LWE connectivity project.
– International gateway at Cox Bazar is not viable.
Alternative through Akhaura being explored.
– DoNER could subsidise royalty charges for microwave
services through NLCPR
Recommendations of NAC
• USO Funds
– USO Funds made available for schemes in North-East.
– Commitment to NOFN implementation.
– Commitment to reach mobile connectivity to all villages in
North East.
– At present, USOF rules are not an impediment.
• Issues on provision of ducts
– NEC could co-ordinate with State PWD-B&R & BRO for
resolution of ducting problem and cable cuts.
– Matter taken up with NHAI for National Highways and joint
committee constituted
Issues flagged for DoNER
• DoNER can initiate advance planning for last mile connectivity
to village institutions.
• DoNER/ NEC eager to take advocacy and co-ordination role
(issue needs clarity)
• NEC could co-ordinate with State PWD-B&R & BRO for
resolution of ducting problem and cable cuts.
• Adviser (Transport & Communication), NEC shall coordinate
on these issue with all stakeholders
• Matter taken up with NHAI for National Highways and joint
committee constituted
• DoNER is actively involved in this committee
Issues flagged for DoNER
DoNER could subsidise royalty charges for microwave
services through NLCPR.
• DoNER is administering following schemes that are linked to NLCPR
Pool.
– NLCPR Scheme – meant only for priority projects of State
Governments
– NLCPR-Central Scheme
• Annual allocation of fund for both these Schemes are done by
Department of Expenditure through normal budgetary procedure and
not correlated with the accumulated accruals into the NLCPR Pool.
• NLCPR Central is to ensure speedy development of NER by the
targeted flow of budgetary resources for financing social and
physical infrastructure projects pertaining to subjects in Union and
concurrent lists of the Constitution. Fund from scheme will NOT be
available to supplement/ up-scale the normal Plan Programmes of the
Central Ministries/Department/Agencies.
Issues flagged for DoNER
• A total six project proposal from M/o Power, M/o Railways and
M/o Shipping with combined indicative cost of Rs. 3440 received
against NLCPR - Central Scheme shall exhaust 30-40% in NLCPR
pool.
• For 2012-13, Rs. 36 Crore was allocated to by MoF.
• For 2013-14, B.E. of Rs. 62 Crore allocated by MoF
Views of DoNER on DoT’s initiatives
• Ministry of DoNER would like to appreciate DoT’s initiative regarding
“augmentation of OFC network”, specially designed for NE Region,
which is expected to address OFC connectivity between Block Head
Quarters & District Head Quarters.
• Target of DoT to connect all 8117 Panchayats in North East with
optical fibre under National Optical Fibre Network (NOFN) is a good
beginning. However, the difficult geographical constraints (scattered
populace), power problem, poor accessibility of villages, variation in
the nature of Panchayati institutions vis-à-vis rest of the country
demands a careful planning and adoption of realistic approach.
• As suggested by Planning Commission suggestion there is need to
evolve a comprehensive telecom plan for NER after taking into
account (a) existing network of USOF, telcos and other agencies, (b)
their expansion plan, (c) identification of gaps for arriving at desired
level of telecom connectivity, (d) overall investment requirement to
bridge the gap, (e) policy intervention and VGF support as per
available resource with GoI.
Views of DoNER on DoT’s initiatives
10% GBS performance of DoT (including USOF) is not satisfactory
Year
Allocation for
NER by DoT
Actual
Expenditure
% Utilization
2010-11
39.73
24.55
61.79
2011-12
195.05
42.37
21.72
Views of DoNER on DoT’s initiatives
•
•
•
•
10% GBS expenditure for NER is the lower ceiling
There is no shortage of fund with DoT for the NE Region
Suggestions :Need to further relax USOF guideline and other policy initiatives
so that more schemes specific to NER may be supported like
augmentation of satellite and microwave communication.
• Private, public telcos, other Government agencies like PGCIL and
Railtel may be encouraged to initiate proposals for strengthening
of telecom services under USO relaxed norms for the NER (and
also for similar backward areas in the country).