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Govt subsidise OFC networks from USOF

After extending the scope of the Universal Service Obligation Fund (USOF) to mobile telephony, the government will give subsidy from this fund to both state-owned and private operators to build optic fibre cable networks across the country.

The department of telecom (DoT) has already asked state-owned Telecom Consultants India Ltd (TCIL) to conduct a detailed study on the optic fibre cable networks of all operators and suggest the best methodology to augment these networks. The move comes as the government has realised that ‘it would be uneconomical for every service provider to lay their own extensive OFC networks’.

All telecom operators pay 5% of their total revenues towards USOF, which is used to subsidise rural telephony. As per DoT’s own estimates, the unutilised amount in this fund is over Rs 10,000 crore.

On the basis of the study, operators whose OFC networks are the most amenable to sharing would be identified and the government will support augmentation and extension of the same on the condition that they share their bandwidth with other players, DoT said.

The shared OFC networks will be used as backbone for both mobile and wireless broadband (WiMax). DoT will soon ask telecom regulator Trai to fix rentals for shared OFC networks to avoid any disputes over pricing.

USOF administrator Shantanu Consul in his communication to DoT on this issue (dated June 29) said: “Through the proposed study, USOF will be able to identify the service provider which has OFC connectivity between the block HQ and the district, which is most amenable to sharing. USOF will try and support the company which has the largest OFC network in each district and also take up work on the missing link and provide it in such a manner as to enable sharing by other service providers.

USOF is of the considered opinion that this is the only practical approach and economical way of approaching this significant issue of providing OFC-based connectivity on a shared basis.”

DoT has said that TCIL was the appropriate agency to carry out the study, as being a PSU it would find it easier to fetch the desired data from other government-owned PSUs and private operators. “At the same time it will ensure telecom network data security. TCIL has a professional core competence in this field. They have executed turnkey optical fibre projects for Railways, GAIL, BSNL, MTNL and other private operators in countries such as Botswana and Saudi Arabia,” DoT added.