Transcript Review of USO Fund Activities in North Eastern States

Presentation to National Advisory
Council (NAC) regarding USO Fund
Activities in North Eastern States
Meeting on 17th August 2011
at
New Delhi
1
17/08/2011
Status of Telephony in North
Eastern Region
2
17/08/2011
Teledensity as on 31.05.2011
250.00%
Teledensity %
200.00%
150.00%
100.00%
50.00%
0.00%
Urban
ASSAM
25.37%
131.41%
NORTH-EAST- I
56.39%
216.10%
NORTH-EAST- II
8.23%
41.66%
ALL- INDIA
35.22%
160.91%
Total
41.29%
95.31%
16.20%
73.11%
Rural
3
Teledensity in NE-I is higher than All India
17/08/2011
WIre Line & Wire Less Phones in NER
14000000
12000000
No. of Phones
10000000
8000000
6000000
4000000
2000000
0
NORTH-EAST- I
WL - Rural
60961
37453
WL - Urban
195699
108685
WL - Total
256660
146138
Wire Less - Rural
6550097
3059501
Wire-Less Urban
5852217
3715706
Wire Less Total
12402314
6775207
NORTH-EAST- II
28249
86053
114302
344941
505568
850509
ASSAM
4
Growth in NER is mainly on Wireless Technologies
17/08/2011
Wireline Phones by PSU / Private Operators
300000
250000
No. of Phones
200000
150000
100000
50000
0
PSU - Rural
60961
PSU - Urban
193475
PSU - Total
254436
Pvt - Rural
0
Pvt - Urban
2224
Pvt - Total
2224
NORTH-EAST- I
37453
108491
145944
0
194
194
NORTH-EAST- II
28249
86053
114302
0
0
0
ASSAM
5
17/08/2011
Wireless Phones by PSU / Private Operators
12000000
10000000
No. of Phones
8000000
6000000
4000000
2000000
0
PSU - Rural
542823
PSU - Urban
969367
PSU - Total
1512190
Pvt - Rural
6007274
Pvt - Urban
4882850
Pvt - Total
10890124
NORTH-EAST- I
245519
416709
662228
2813982
3298997
6112979
NORTH-EAST- II
344941
505568
850509
0
0
0
ASSAM
6
17/08/2011
GSM Phones by PSU / Private Operators
12000000
10000000
No. of Phones
8000000
6000000
4000000
2000000
0
ASSAM
NORTH-EAST- I
NORTH-EAST- II
7
PSU - Rural
440159
PSU - Urban
963817
PSU - Total
1403976
Pvt - Rural
6002347
Pvt - Urban
4767299
Pvt - Total
10769646
173236
415876
589112
2806363
3224550
6030913
306585
474247
780832
0
0
0
17/08/2011
USO Fund in Activities NE Region
8
17/08/2011
USO Fund

USO Fund was created effective from 01.04.2002 with an amendment of
Indian Telegraph Act. The objective was to provide access to basic
telegraph services to people in rural and remote areas at affordable and
reasonable prices.

Originally the thrust was on public & individual access which included
Village Public Telephones (VPTs), MARR replacements and Rural
Community Phones (RCPs) and Rural lines to individual users (RDELs).

In December 2006, Indian Telegraph Act was amended to include the
activities of shared infrastructure, mobile services, broadband connectivity,
general infrastructure like OFC etc.

Indian Telegraph Rules have been amended in 2004, 2006 and 2008 for
implementation of USOF activities.
9
17/08/2011
USO Fund – Levy

Funded through Universal Access Levy @ 5% of Adjusted
Gross Revenue (AGR) from all Service Providers except
the pure value added service providers like Internet,
Voice Mail, E-Mail service providers etc.

Levy amount is credited to Consolidated Fund of India
and made available to USOF after due appropriation by
the Parliament.

Provision for Grants and Loans from Government of
India
10
17/08/2011
Scope of USO Fund

Activities under USO Fund are taken up under
different Streams of Indian Telegraph Rules.






11
Stream I : Provision of Public Telephone Services
Stream II : Provision of Household Telephones in Net High
Cost rural & remote Areas.
Stream III : Creation of Infrastructure for provision of
Mobile Services in rural & remote areas.
Stream IV : Provision of Broadband connectivity to villages
in a phased manner.
Stream V : Creation of general infrastructure in rural and
remote areas for development of telecom facilities
Stream VI: Induction of new technological developments in
the telecom sector in rural and remote areas
17/08/2011
VPTs in all inhabited villages

Village Public Telephones (VPTs) have been provided in 37127
villages out of the total of 40377 inhabited villages in North
Eastern Region with financial support from USO Fund.

Under Bharat Nirman 11,982 villages were planned to be provided
with VPTs In North East . Villages with population less than 100,
those affected with insurgency and those lying in deep forests were
excluded for provision of VPTs

For the remaining uncovered inhabited 7245 villages as per Census
2001, USOF has signed agreement with BSNL in Feb 2009. This
includes villages with population less than 100, remote
&
inaccessible locations etc.

All the remaining villages are to be provided with VPTs by Mar’2012.
12
17/08/2011
Status of Provision of VPTs
S.
No.
State
Total No. of
Villages as
per Census
2001
No. of
inhabited
Villages as
per Census
2001
No. of
Villages
covered
with VPTs
No. of
Villages yet
to be
covered
with VPTs
1.
Assam
26,312
25,124
24,280
844
2.
Meghalaya
6,027
5,782
4,856
926
3.
Mizoram
817
707
704
3
4.
Tripura
870
858
858
0
5.
Manipur
2,391
2,315
2,142
173
6.
Arunachal Pradesh
4,065
3,863
2,595
1,268
7.
Nagaland
1,317
1,278
1,263
15
8.
Sikkim
452
450
429
21
Total
42,251
40,377
37,127
3,250
13
17/08/2011
VPTs under Bharat Nirman
S.
No.
State
Villages to
be provided
with VPTs
Villages
covered
upto
31.12.2009
No. of
Villages yet
to be
covered
No. of
Villages to
be covered
on DSPTs
No. of
Villages
dropped
from the
scheme by
BSNL
1.
Assam
8,775
8,775
0
0
156
2.
Meghalaya
1,504
972
532
433
453
3.
Mizoram
93
87
6
0
3
4.
Tripura
75
75
0
0
0
5.
Manipur
861
849
12
12
15
6.
Arunachal Pradesh
646
628
18
17
0
7.
Nagaland
28
28
0
0
0
8.
Sikkim
0
0
0
0
0
Total
11,982
11,414
568
462
627
14
17/08/2011
Status of New VPTs
S.
State
No.
Villages to
be
provided
with VPTs
VPTs
provided
upto
31.12.2009
Balance
VPTs to
be
provided
% of VPTs
pending
1.
Assam
2,067
914
1,153
55.78
2.
Meghalaya
1,944
30
1,914
98.46
3.
Mizoram
23
18
5
21.74
4.
Tripura
136
82
54
39.71
5.
Manipur
318
107
211
66.35
6.
Arunachal Pradesh
2,431
125
2,306
94.86
7.
Nagaland
161
117
44
27.33
8.
Sikkim
165
87
78
47.27
Total
7,245
1,480
5,765
79.57
15
17/08/2011
MARR Replacements




Dysfunctional VPTs working on Multi Access Radio
Relay (MARR) technology are being replaced with that
of reliable technology VPTs
BSNL is to replace 12,796 existing dysfunctional Multi
Access Radio Relay (MARR) based VPTs in North
Eastern Region with reliable technology VPTs
Out of these 12558 MARR based VPT have been
replaced as on 31.07.2011
Replacement of remaining MARR based VPTs are not
feasible on conventional technologies and are to be
replaced by satellite phones.
16
17/08/2011
Status of MARR Replacement
S.
State
No.
Total MARR
based VPTs
to be
replaced
MARR based
VPTs
replaced
upto
31.07.2011
Balance
MARR based
VPTs to be
replaced
1.
Assam
9,294
9,197
97
2.
Meghalaya
1,056
957
99
3.
Mizoram
527
525
2
4.
Tripura
318
318
0
5.
Manipur
547
531
16
6.
Arunachal Pradesh
440
416
24
7.
Nagaland
544
544
0
8.
Sikkim
70
70
0
Total
12,796
12,558
238
17
17/08/2011
Status of Provision of RCPs
2355 Rural Community Phones (RCPs)] were to be provided by BSNL in North
Eastern Region in villages with population exceeding 2,000 and not having PCO facility
18
S.
No.
State
Total RCPs to
be provided
RCPs
provided
1.
Assam
1,913
1,913
2.
Meghalaya
28
28
3.
Mizoram
21
21
4.
Tripura
207
207
5.
Manipur
89
89
6.
Arunachal Pradesh
7
7
7.
Nagaland
90
90
8.
Sikkim
0
0
Total
2,355
2,355
17/08/2011
Individual Rural Lines



Agreements were signed with M/s BSNL in March
2005 for provision of individual rural household
Direct Exchange Lines (RDELs) to be installed during
01.04.2005 and 31.03.2007 in North Eastern Region
RDELs were to be installed in the eligible 104 Short
Distance Charging Areas (SDCAs), where cost of
providing telephone connection is more than the
revenue earned
1,44,791 RDELs have been provided in North East
states till 31.03.2010 i.e. till the closure of the
scheme
19
17/08/2011
Status of Provision of RDELs
S.
State
No.
Total No. of
SDCAs
No. of
Eligible
SDCAs
RDELs
installed
upto
31.12.2009
1.
Assam
46
26
65,549
2.
Meghalaya
14
13
11,054
3.
Mizoram
9
9
13,081
4.
Tripura
7
5
27,086
5.
Manipur
13
10
6,436
6.
Arunachal Pradesh
33
30
2,781
7.
Nagaland
10
10
17,641
8.
Sikkim
2
1
1,163
Total
134
104
1,44,791
20
17/08/2011
Shared Mobile Infrastructure Scheme





The Scheme was launched for Setting up and managing
infrastructure sites for provision of mobile services in rural
and remote areas, where there is no existing fixed wireless/
mobile coverage
The habitations of more than 2000 populations covered
Infrastructure so created to be shared by three service
providers for provision of mobile services
The agreements effective from 01.06.2007 were signed with
the successful bidders in May 2007
As on 31.07.2011, 515 towers out of 574 towers have been
set up in NE Region
21
17/08/2011
Status of Provision of Towers
S.
No.
State
Name of the
Infrastructure
Provider
Total
Number of
Towers to
be setup
Number of Towers
commissioned as
on 31.07.2011
% Achievement
1.
Assam
RCIL
87
87
100
2.
Meghalaya
KEC
108
107
99.07
3.
Mizoram
KEC
43*
37
86.04
4.
Tripura
BSNL
115
115
100
5.
Manipur
BSNL
97
60
61.85
6.
Arunachal
Pradesh
BSNL
67
61
61.85
7.
Nagaland
BSNL
51
42
82.35
8.
Sikkim
VESL
6
6
100
574
515
89.72%
Total
22
17/08/2011
Status of Provision of Services
S.
No.
State
No. of
Towers
commissio
ned as on
31.07.2011
BTS
installed
Aircel
BTS
installed
RTL/RCL
BTS
installed
BSNL
Total BTSs
commissioned
as on
31.07.2011
1.
Assam
87
87
87
87
261
2.
Meghalaya
107
88
60
69
217
3.
Mizoram
37
24
5
23
52
4.
Tripura
115
78
12
91
88
5.
Manipur
60
6
33
0
39
6.
Arunachal Pradesh
61
4
54
0
58
7.
Nagaland
42
6
12
0
18
8.
Sikkim
6
NA
5
NA
11
(6 VESL, 5 RTL)
Total
23
515
293
268
267
774/1545
17/08/2011
Wire-line Broadband

An Agreement was signed with BSNL on 20.01.09 for subsidy disbursement
towards provision of wire-line broadband connectivity in rural areas.



The subsidy disbursement is for





The speed of the broadband connections shall be at least 512 kbps always on, with the
capability to deliver data, voice and video services in the fixed mode.
Support to be provided for 31 BB connections and 1 Kiosk per rural exchange
Broadband connections,
Customer Premises Equipment (CPE)
Computer/Computing devices
Setting up of Kiosks for public access to broadband services.
Individual Users, Institutional Users such as Gram Panchayats, Hr. secondary
schools and Public Health Centers, Kiosks etc are entitled for support
24
17/08/2011
Status of Provision of BB Connectivity
S.
No.
State
No. of Rural
Exchanges
No. of
Broadband
Connections
to be
Provided
Broadband
Connections
Provided
1.
Assam
429
13,299
1,660
2.
Meghalaya
56
1,736
91
3.
Mizoram
35
1,085
153
4.
Tripura
58
1,798
438
5.
Manipur
54
1,674
125
6.
Arunachal Pradesh
105
3,255
177
7.
Nagaland
62
1,922
25
8.
Sikkim
47
1,457
54
Total
846
26,226
2,723
25
17/08/2011
Optical Fiber Network

The scheme envisages to provide subsidy support for augmentation,
creation and management of intra-district SDHQ-DHQ OFC
Network

The aims is to make available the network capacity on sharing basis
to other service providers for transport of rural/remote area traffic
at the prescribed rates

The approach is to utilize spare fiber and multiplex capacity
wherever available in the network as well as utilize existing
premises and upgrade the existing capacity as required, install new
OFC routes to SDHQ still not having OFC connectivity

To start with, Assam has been taken up as first state. BSNL (the
selected bidder) has installed about 127 nodes so far (Out of 354).
26
17/08/2011
Area-wise Scheme-wise Subsidy
Disbursal till 30.06.2011
Area
MARR-A MARR-B MOB-I RCP
ASSAM
RDEL-A
RDEL-B RDEL-D RDEL-P
RDEL-X NEW VPT-I
NEW VPT- VPT
II
OPEX
WIRELINE- Grand
BB
Total
30.37
1.55
2.60
6.29
33.17
51.46
8.84
3.60
16.95
0.00
17.61
1.40
173.83
NE-I
2.90
1.85
13.31
0.19
8.16
29.83
3.44
3.31
5.69
0.92
6.55
0.25
76.40
NE-II
2.93
0.62
1.64
0.28
14.66
26.25
4.94
6.41
1.41
0.86
0.46
60.46
36.20
4.02
17.55
6.76
55.99
107.54
11.84
29.04
2.34
25.01
2.10
310.68
Total for
NER
27
12.28
0.00
17/08/2011
Year Wise Subsidy Disbursements
3500
3000
Rs. Crore
2500
2000
1500
1000
500
0
Year Wise Subsidy Disbursements
28
2002-03
300
2003-04
200
2004-05
1314.59
2005-06
1766.85
2006-07
1500
2007-08
1290
2008-09
1600
Cumulative Subsidy Disbursement upto June 2011 –
Rs. 14,212. 55 Crore
2009-10
2400
2010-11
3100
17/08/2011
PILOT PROJECTS

Support is being considered for renewable energy resources
(Solar,Wind, Diesel Hybrid solutions)

One USOF site each in all North Eastern states to be covered

Support is being considered for providing solar mobile charging
stations in villages through TERI’s project of Lighting a Billion
Lives (LaBL)

100 numbers of such charging stations would be provided in
the state of Assam
29
17/08/2011
Forthcoming Schemes



30
A scheme is envisaged for provision of integrated mobile voice & broadband
services in all left out uncovered rural & remote areas of the country including
those in North Eastern States. The scheme also envisages use of renewable
energy resources (solar/wind/hybrid) for powering of these sites.
USO Fund is working on a scheme for providing financial assistance by way of
subsidy for the wireless broadband active infrastructure by utilizing the
existing passive infrastructure available with the Telecom service providers.
This scheme would provide broadband coverage to villages in a phased
manner.The Scheme is likely to be launched shortly.
After the launch of the Augmentation, Creation and Management of IntraDistrict SDHQ-DHQ OFC Network Scheme in Assam, the NE Circles
(comprising States of Meghalaya, Manipur, Tripura, Mizoram, Arunachal Pradesh,
& Nagaland) are being taken up for implementation. The bids stand evaluated,
Railtel has emerged as L1 bidder and signing of the agreement is under
process.
17/08/2011
Points for Discussion
Difficulty in acquisition of land
 Poor connectivity of roads and public
transport
 Difficulty in transportation
 Lack of Electric supply/connections
 Road cutting permissions not being received
 Extortion/ demand of ransom/ collection of
unauthorized taxes

31
17/08/2011
Points for Discussion
Frequent strikes, curfews and economic
blockades
 Frequent road cuts
 Various permissions required to be taken from
State Government Agencies- ROW, work
permits,Tower charges
 SWAN Project ready and awaiting State Govt.
Project implementing agency

32
17/08/2011
THANK YOU
33
17/08/2011