TERM PAPER

FOR SOCIAL MARKETING COURSE

PGPPM 2013-15

TITLEA CASE STUDY ON THE IMPLEMENTATION OF UNIVERSL SERVICE

OBLIGATION SCHEME IN THE INDIAN TELECOM SECTOR

BY

G V RAMANA RAO, PGPPM-1313016

V SURENDRAN, PGPPM-1313020

UNDER

PROFESSOR MITHILESWAR JHA

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

We would like to gratefully acknowledge the support extended by the staff of the USO section of Department of Telecom, Sanchar Bhavan, New Delhi who have patiently answered all our queries and provided us with a detailed understanding of the processes of implementing the USO schemes that has enabled us to take up this socially important topic. Also we would like to thank Prof. Mithileswar Jha, Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore for approving the case of study of implementation of USO scheme in the Indian Telecom Sector as the topic for the term paper under Social Marketing.

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EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Inclusive growth was one of the most important stated objectives of Telecom policies since its inception in 1994. Keeping in mind the inadequacy of the market mechanism to serve rural and inaccessible areas on one hand and the importance of providing vital telecom connectivity on the other, the New Telecom Policy - 1999 provided that the resources for meeting the Universal Service Obligation (USO) would be raised through a ‘Universal Access Levy (UAL)’, which would be a percentage of the revenue earned by the operators under various licenses. The Universal Service Support Policy came into effect from 01.04.2002 through an amendment of the Indian Telegraph Act, in 2003 giving statutory status to the Universal Service Obligation Fund (USOF) and the Fund is to be utilized exclusively for meeting the Universal Service Obligation.

Initially, the USOF Administration was permitted to provide public access and individual access to "basic" service facilities only. Keeping in view the extraordinary urban mobile revolution in India the Indian Telegraph Act was amended in 2006 to enable the USOF to support mobile services also and broadband connectivity in rural and remote areas. Also it was decided to use the fund for the creation of General Infrastructure for development of Telecommunication facilities and induction of new technological developments in the telecom sector.

In spite of such policy initiatives, the disparity in telecom growth between urban and rural areas was increasing. At the same time a huge sum of about Rs 50,600 Cr. has been collected from the telecom service providers as UAL from 2002-03 to 2012-13, where as the utilization of the fund is only about Rs 28,000 Cr., out of which a major share of about Rs 7,000 Cr. was given to the state owned BSNL for reimbursement of license fee and spectrum charges for rural operations. Continued collection of the USO fund from service providers, without effectively utilizing available funds, prevents even the service providers reinvesting this share of revenue in rural sectors in meeting the same objective. Hence there is an urgency for intervention.

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

Sl No. Description Page No.

i. Title of the Term Paper 1

ii. Acknowledgements 2

iii. Executive Summary 3

1. Telecom Growth and Increasing Digital Divide 6

2. Framework of USO Administration 10

3. Shortcomings in the implementation of USO Schemes 18

4. Suitable Measures for improvement 21

5. Tables from I to VIII 23

6. References 36

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List of Tables Page No.1. Table-I: Summary of Village Public Telephones (VPTs) 23

as on 31.05.2013

2. Table-IA: VPTs provided under Bharat Nirman-I 24 as on 31.05.2013

3. Table-IB: VPTs provided under New VPT schemes 25(census:2001) as on 31.05.2013

4. Table-II: Status of Replacement of MARR VPTs 26as on 31.05.2013

5. Table-III: Circle wise progress of RCPs 27up to 31.05.2010

6. Table-IV: Operator wise no. of SDCAs where 28 RDELs are to provided

7. Table-V: Status of RDELs provided 29as on 31.05.2010

8. Table-VIA: Commissioning status of Towers (State-wise) 30 as on 31.05.2013 in rural & remote areas for provision of mobile services

9. Table VI-B: Commissioning status of Towers (IP-wise) 31as on 31.05.2013 in rural & remote areas for provision of Mobile Services

10. Table VIIA Broadband connections provided by BSNL 31 under USOF plans up to April 2012.

11. Table VII B: Installation report of BB Kiosk in rural 33areas under USOF agreement for April -12

12. Table VII C PCs installation report up to April 2012 34under PCs bundling scheme

13. Table-VIII: USO Fund Status 35

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1. TELECOM GROWTH AND INCREASING DIGITAL DIVIDE

The very first Telecom policy of this country in 1994 was an aftermath of economic liberalization taking place in this country since early 90s. The realization that telecom facility is one of the important infrastructure required for the growth of the economy prompted to come out with definite policies in this regard. The first two objectives stipulated were

1. “ The focus of the Telecom Policy shall be telecommunication for all and telecommunication within the reach of all. This means ensuring the availability of telephone on demand as early as possible.

2. Another objective will be to achieve universal service covering all villages as early as possible. What is meant by the expression universal service is the provision of access to all people for certain basic telecom services at affordable and reasonable prices”.

As can be seen, the concept of Universal Service Obligation ( USO ) was clearly spelt out as one of the primary goals. It was observed that the Tele-density in India at that time was 0.8 per 100 population when world average was about 10. The number of lines working was just 8 million and the waiting was over 2.5 million. The Policy fixed a target of making telephone available on demand covering all villages by 1997.

The developments in the sector was far from satisfactory and Government was forced to come out with its next Telecom Policy NTP1999. In the review of the policy it was mentioned that only 3.1 lakh out of 6 lakh villages only could be covered with telecom facilities and the rural teledensity was just 0.4 while total teledensity was 1.56. The policy reiterated its commitment to provide telecom facility on demand covering all villages and the time frame was re fixed as 2002. It also fixed target for achieving a teledensity of 7 by 2005 and 15 by 2010. For ensuring universal Service Obligation it also provided for establishing a fund for this purpose taking a universal access levy from all Service Providers.

As can be seen from the table below, even though the targets with respect to the Telecom Policy 1999 has been achieved both in case of rural and urban teledensities, the disparity in absolute terms is increasing from time to time which is a matter of concern especially in view of the objective of balance and inclusive growth.

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Year Rural Urban Total

1997 0.34 4.76 1.56

1999 0.52 5.78 1.94

2002 1.21 12.2 4.29

2005 1.73 26.88 8.95

2006 2.34 38.28 12.74

2010 24.56 122 53.46

2012 39.26 169.17 78.66

The Bar chart given below will give further disparity in telecom growth with respect to geography. The variation is from 46 % in most backward area like Bihar to 219 % in Delhi. The other more worrying factor is that the growth statistics given in Bar chart given below shows that the under developed areas like Bihar, Assam, J&K etc, the growth is negative. It means it is not showing any signs of improvement

Even more worse is the report that more than 57000 villages are yet to be covered with telecom facilities even today. This is the fate of normal telephony. The situation of Broadband is still bad. All these confirms that the digital divide issue is critically serious and some serious action to be taken in this regard.

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The exponential growth of telecom sector from 2002 onwards can be attributed to the contribution of private sector. Understandably, their primary objective being profit, the urban telephony got a boost and surpassed all targets much ahead of time. Even though there is a rollout obligation for the Private Telecom Service Providers in the licensing condition, it is not effective. It stipulates that the Service Provider should cover at least 10% of the District Headquarters in the first year and 50% of the District headquarters in 3 years. Even this

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condition was further modified through clarifications issued by the department that for the purpose of rollout obligation they can cover any municipal town in the District. An analysis of the list of towns offered by the Service Provider will reveal that most of them have offered the same set of towns, being the smallest and compact one in a given district. It is also observed that the percentage of population covered by them is no way near 10% or 50% of the total population of the Service Area and most of them have selected the same set of station due to the convenience of the service providers for meeting the targets set by the licensor. As can be seen, there is no compulsion or incentive for them to go far interior to a remotely located village.

The statistics and trend of Average Revenue Per Minute and minutes of use of Indian Mobile customers furnished below are supportive of the claim by the Service Providers that they are not able to break even.

Under such circumstances it will be impossible to make the Service Providers to serve unprofitable areas. Hence it becomes all the more important that Government has to comes out with some effective mechanism to ensure equitable growth of the sector as envisaged in its policies.

In such a scenario, the government has put in place the concept of Universal Service Obligation Fund to support the service providers to launch the services in rural pockets which are highly backward and remote where the service provision is not commercially viable otherwise.

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2. FRAMEWORK OF USO ADMINISTRATION

The resources for meeting the Universal Service Obligation (USO) were to be generated through a Universal Service Levy(USL), at a rate of 5% of the adjusted gross revenue earned by the operators holding different type of licenses. Further, NTP '99 envisaged implementation of Universal Service Obligation for rural and remote areas through all Basic Service providers who were to be reimbursed from the funds collected by way of USL. Other service providers were also to be allowed to participate in USO provisioning subject to technical feasibility and were to be similarly reimbursed out of the funds of USL

The Universal Service Support Policy(USSP) has come into effect from 1.4. 2002 with the appointment of an Administrator, in the rank of Secretary to Govt. of India, exclusively on fulltime basis for the implementation of Universal Service Support Policy. The USO Fund Administrator is assisted by around 22 Controllers of Communication Accounts (CCA) spread across the country in different Telecom Service Areas. These field units of the Department of Telecom (DOT) have been delegated the functions of subsidy disbursement and verification of subsidy claims. They assist the USOF Administration in monitoring of the field level implementation of USOF Agreements. They also liaise with state and local government authorities in this regard.

The scope of support from the Universal Obligation Service Fund is to the extent of giving financial support to meet the net cost of providing the specified universal service obligation as per the procedure specified by the Administrator from time to time, and the period for which support shall be provided and the services covered shall be governed by an agreement entered into with the universal service provider.

An inter-ministerial group consisting of senior officers from different ministries has been constituted for periodic reviewing of the functioning of the USO schemes and policies and suggest suitable changes to be made from time to time in sync with the changing economic and technical environments.

The USO Fund Administrator shall be responsible for

Implementation of the guidelines laid down by Government for providing Universal Service Support

Suggesting such changes in policy as may be deemed necessary for implementation of Universal Service Support

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Forecasting the requirement of Universal Service Funds for each financial year and obtaining approval of Government through Department of Telecom

Ensuring that the prescribed Universal Service Levy is credited to the appropriate Universal Service Fund on a regular basis

In the implementation of the Universal Service Support Policy, the Administrator shall

Formulate benchmark costs Finalize bidding procedures/processes including relevant terms and conditions for this

purpose. Constitute of appropriate evaluation and approval Committees for recommending

successful bidders Issue LOI to the successful bidder and finalizing contracts/ agreements Settle claims of eligible service providers after due verification and make disbursements

accordingly from USO Fund. Specify relevant formats, procedures and financial data records to be maintained and furnished by the various service providers

Evolve a mechanism for monitoring the performance of the successful bidders with reference to implementation of the contracts finalized with them

Streams of Services identified for USO Support:

The following streams of activities have been identified for the USO funding.

Stream-I: Provision of Public Access Service (Schemes on VPTs and RCPs) – Stream-II: Provision of Household Telephones in Rural and Remote Areas (RDELs) – Stream-III: Scheme on Creation of Infrastructure for provision of Mobile Services in

Rural and Remote Areas. (Mobile Infrastructure Phase – I) – Stream-IV: Provision of Broadband Connectivity to rural & remote areas in a phased

manner (Wire Line Broadband, WLBB, Rural Public Service Terminals, RPST) – Stream-V: Creation of General Infrastructure in Rural and Remote Areas for

Development of Telecom facilities. (Optical Fiber Cable (OFC) for Assam) – Stream-VI: Induction of new technological developments in the telecom sector in Rural

and Remote Pilot projects to establish new technological developments in the telecom sector. (Ex: Solar Mobile Charging Facility, SMCF).

The framework for the implementation of these various streams of services is through the established practice of inviting tenders from the established telecom service providers, finalizing them, fixing the targets, verifying the achievements, and finally scrutiny and settlement of the

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USO subsidy claims. The outcome of the above initiatives has resulted into an era of communication revolution in the far-flung, in-accessible and hostile terrains of backward rural areas, which people have never imagined and otherwise also not possible without the sort of incentive in the form USO subsidy for the service providers. The details of various schemes in operation and their implementation status as follows:

Stream I

Public Access: provision of public access facilities by way of Village Public Telephones (VPTs) and Rural Community Phones (RCPs). Every 1991 Census Revenue village with a population of more than 2000 and no existing PCO is to be provided with an additional public telephone by way of a RCP.

1) Village Public Telephones

Existing VPTs

Agreements were signed with M/s BSNL and six Private Basic Service Operators (PBSOs) in March 2003 for providing subsidy support for maintenance of existing VPTs in the identified revenue villages as per Census 1991. In addition, subsidy support is also admissible for the VPTs installed in additional revenue villages as per census 2001. About 96% of the eligible Census 2001 inhabited revenue villages are already covered with Village Public Telephones (VPTs). This includes the VPTs provided under Bharat Nirman program also.

The achievements of VPTs in various states is given in the Table-1. From the table, it is evident that about 97.75% of the identified villages have been provided with VPTs.

New VPTs

(a) As per Census 1991, 66822 no. of uncovered villages are to be provided with VPTs and Agreements were signed with M/s BSNL in November 2004 to provide the subsidy support for this provision. Subsidy support in the form of Capital and Operational expenses will be provided for provision of these VPTs for a period of five years from the date of installation of the VPTs. Out of these, 14183 remotely located villages were to be provided VPTs through Digital Satellite Phone Terminals (DSPTs) as per the agreements signed. Some of the VPTs, which were initially proposed to be provided on DSPTs, are also being provided through the Wireless coverage now available in these villages on account of network expansion. The VPTs were to be provided in phases covering 20%,

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40% and 40% respectively over a period of three years. Targets and achievements for the new VPTs in uncovered villages is given in Table-1A. From the data it is clear that the actual target provision of VPTs is 62302 out of which DSPTs achievement is a little over 20% and the major portion being provided with wire- line, and the total achievement is 99.67%.

(b) As per Census 2001, there are about another 62,443 uncovered villages, which are yet to be provided with VPT facility. Such uncovered villages shall also be provided with VPT facility with subsidy support from USOF. Agreements in this regard have been signed with BSNL on 27.02.2009

The targets and achievements are given in Table-1B. The data given in the table shows that the achievement is about 85.6%.

(ii) Rural Community Phones (RCPs)

46,253 villages with population exceeding 2,000 and without a Public phone facility are being provided with a Rural Community Phone (RCP). Agreements were signed with M/s BSNL and M/s RIL in September 2004 to provide 24,822 and 21,431 RCPs respectively in these villages over a period of three years i.e. by 30.09.2007. These installations are eligible for both Capital and Operational expenses. The number of RCPs to be provided has subsequently been revised as 40694 [BSNL: 21958,   RIL: 18736].

The targets and achievements for RCP are given Table-III and the achievement is 87.98%

Stream-II

Individual Access:

A subsidy support is being provided for a limited duration of three years for wire line RDELs installed prior to 1.4.02 w.e.f 18 July 2008. Subsidy is being provided for 1.86 million RDELs already installed between 1.4.02 and 31.3.05 in 1685 net cost positive Short Distance Charging Areas (SDCAs) Subsidy support is also being extended to RDELs installed between 1.4.05 and 31.3.07 in 1685 net cost positive SDCAs. By 31.3.07, about 2.56 million RDELs had been provided under this scheme. Period of

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installation of RDELs under this scheme now stands extended up to 31.3.2010. The status of the scheme is furnished below:

RDELS (1.4.2002 to 31.3.2005):

Support is also being extended for 18.65 lakhs rural lines installed between 01.04.2002 and 31.03.2005 at the same rates as applicable for the RDELs above. Agreements to this effect were signed with M/s BSNL and M/s RIL in May 2005 & August 2005. The equated annual subsidy is to be given for a maximum period of five years from the date of installation of these RDELs. One time front loaded subsidy is payable only for net addition of rural household DELs.

RDELS:(From 1.4.2005 to 31.3.2007)

Agreements were signed with M/s BSNL, M/s RIL, M/s TTL and M/s TTL (MH) in March 2005 for installation of Rural Household Direct Exchange Lines (RDELs) to be installed during the period 01.04.2005 to 31.03.2007. These RDELs were to be installed in 1685 Short Distance Charging Areas (SDCAs) [BSNL: 1267, RIL: 203, TTSL: 172, TTML: 43] where cost of providing telephone connections is more than the revenue earned. Support in the form of front loaded subsidy is being given for all the lines (RDELs) installed from 01.04.2005 to 31.03.2007. The equated annual subsidy where payable, shall be given up to a maximum period of validity of the Agreement (Five years) and validity period ends in March, 2010. Subsequently the cutoff date for installation of the RDELs was extended to 31.3.2010.

The details of SDCAs where RDELs are to be provided are given in Table-IV and the achievements of RDELs is given in Table-V. From the table it is evident that about 8 million rural household lines were given at reduced tariffs under the support of USO funding.

Replacement of MARR based VPTs:

1,86,872 no. of VPTs which were earlier working on Multi Access Radio Relay (MARR) technology and installed before 01.04.2002 are to be replaced by reliable technology equipment as most of these were non functional. Both capital and operational expenses are to be supported for this activity. The number of MARR VPTs to be replaced has subsequently been revised as 1,85,121. The targets and achievements for the replacement of MARR based VPTs is given in Table-II, which shows that the achievement is about 99.82%

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Stream III

Infrastructure support for Mobile Services:

Under this initiative, about 7436 mobile infrastructure sites spread across 500 districts and 27 states of India are being rolled out. This scheme will provide mobile services to about 0.2 million villages which were hitherto deprived of the same. It is a unique initiative as it is based on sharing of subsidized passive infrastructure (tower, boundary wall, electric connection, power backup, security cabin etc) by three telecom service providers who will put up their own subsidized active infrastructure (Base Transmission system. Antenna, Backhaul) and roll out wireless services(Mobile Infrastructure Phase-I). It is also proposed to shortly roll out the second phase of the scheme whereby about 10,000 towers shall be set up with USOF support to cover uncovered villages/cluster of villages having population of more than 5000 or more with mobile services

The agreements effective from 01.06.2007 have been signed with the successful bidders in May 2007. The State-wise number of towers to be set up under this scheme and the towers commissioned are given in Table-VI-A and VI-B and the overall achievement is about 99.4%

Stream IV

Scheme for Providing Broadband connectivity in rural areas: The scheme envisages leveraging existing telecom infrastructure (wireless, landline and satellite) to provide broadband connectivity in rural and remote areas. Schools, Common Service Centers, Primary Health Centers, Panchayats etc. and individuals in rural areas will benefit from the scheme

Rural Broadband Scheme: Agreement has been signed with BSNL on 20.01.09 to provide 8,61,459 wire-line Broadband connections to individual users and Government Institutions from 27,789 DSLAMs, installed at existing rural and remote exchanges over a period of 5-years, i.e., by 2014.

Status of implementation of Broadband Agreement is given in Table-VII(A), VII(B) and VII(C). From the data it is evident that the achievement over a period of about two and half years is 41.9% and the remaining is to be achieved by 31.3.1014. It is to be noted so far there are no private service providers in this scheme, even though all the Service Providers, with valid license from DoT for BSO/UASL, are eligible to apply for the

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Scheme. Such Service Providers shall have outdoor copper cable network from their existing serving exchange in the rural and remote areas with back-haul & backbone connectivity on OFC.

Stream V Scheme for augmenting the Optical Fiber Scheme network for connecting to

Block headquarters. To provide adequate back haul for voice and data traffic in rural areas, USOF proposes to subsidize the augmentation /creation of the required rural OFC network capacity. To begin with it has been decided to improve the OFC network between the Block HQs and the District HQs.

Scheme for Intra-District OFC Connectivity in Assam: The Service Area of Assam has been taken up first and an Agreement has been signed with the selected USP i.e. BSNL in February 2010. As per this Agreement, BSNL shall share the subsidized intra-district OFC bandwidth capacity with other service providers at the prescribed discounted rates. It is expected that the availability of high capacity backhaul at discounted rates would greatly encourage the growth of voice and data services in the region.

Stream VI

Pilot Project Scheme: A scheme to induct new technologies on pilot basis has been launched. Subsidy will be provided to demonstrate new technology through pilot projects in areas of broadband, fixed/wireless telephony, transmission media, hybrid power, Customer Premises Equipment (CPE) etc. It will be a tripartite effort amongst the technology provider, Telecom Service provider (TSP) and USOF Administration. The project must function for at least three months for proper impact assessment. Project results are to be certified by TEC/CDOT/IIT. A seminar will be held to share and disseminate results. The upper limit of USOF assistance per project is Rs. 0.5Million.

Provision of Solar Chargers for CDMA FWT VPTs : All new FWT based VPTs being supported by USOF are to be provided with solar chargers. Also, under joint MNRE and USOF support, about 50,000 existing Code Division Multiple Access Fixed Wireless Terminal (CDMA FWT) based VPTs are being provided with subsidized solar chargers with the aim of ensuring their sustained and effective functioning.

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Pilot Projects to establish the Viability of Powering of Shared Mobile Infrastructure Sites in Rural Areas through Solar/Solar-Wind Hybrid Installations : Subsidy support from MNRE and USOF shall be provided towards solar/solar-wind hybrid power installations in USOF‘s shared mobile infrastructure sites (one in each state). The results obtained from these 28 sites will help establish technical feasibility and financial viability of utilization of renewable energy in shared mobile sites in rural areas.

Pilot Project for Establishment of Rural Solar Mobile Charging Facilities (SMCFs) :- Support shall be provided for rural solar mobile charging stations in 5000 villages through TERI’s Lighting a Billion Lives (LaBL) project. The SMCFs shall be run by village entrepreneurs who shall recover nominal fees from the rural public towards charging of mobile phones.

3. SHORTCOMINGS IN THE IMPELEMENTATION OF USO SCHEMES

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The USO Fund status is given in Table VIII. From the data, it is clear that a huge of sum of about Rs 50,600 Cr. has been collected from the telecom service providers as UAL from 2002-03 to 2012-13, where as the utilization of the fund is only about Rs 28,000 Cr., out of which a major share of about Rs 7,000 Cr. was given to the state owned BSNL for reimbursement of license fee and spectrum charges for rural operations. New Telecom Policy, 2012 envisages increase in rural teledensity to 70% by 2017 and 100% by 2020.

Inadequacies in the existing systems /schemes are evident from the fact that there are 57000 villages which are yet to be covered with basic telecom facility even after 9 years of existence of USO fund organization, having nearly 50% of the funds unutilized and urban growth touching 169%. This probably indicate that the organization is not fully successful in accomplishing the task of reducing / eliminating digital divide. Even though some of the schemes launched are successfully completed, it has not succeeded in bridging the gap, rather it is increasing in absolute terms. As can be seen most of the projects are being entrusted with BSNL and the private service providers could not be roped in, in a big way, even though more than 85% of the telecom market share is with them. This points towards the fact that the projects launched are not remunerative to make Private Service Providers willingly get involved. At the same time the provisions of licensing are not adequate enough to make the service providers meet this Universal Service Obligation objective. An analysis of some of the important existing schemes will give better clarity about the issue and will lead us to better solutions.

Rural DELs

The Support schemes are available only of RDEL provided during a particular period in selected Rural areas. That too for net connections provided. Any connection provided, irrespective of the period provision, the Service Provider has to incur the same expenditure for providing the same. Hence restricting subsidy for certain period is not logical. Moreover, generally, the new connections in such areas will come from far flung areas, so far not covered. Hence restriction of subsidy only for net connections also will not be in the true spirit for which the subsidy is extended. The criteria for providing subsidy for RDELs are to be made more rational.

Mobile Infrastructure

This is one of the major steps taken by USO Fund Organization ( USOFO )has taken in ensuring universal service in this country. As per the statistics given by USOFO the

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project has been completed successfully achieving 99.4% of the target set. But this need to be seen in various other perspectives.

a) The agreements under this project were in effect from 2007. Subsidy was payable or a maximum period of 5 years from the date of commissioning of the site, within the period of validity of the scheme, i.e. six and half years from the date of effect of the agreement. Gestation period is too long even without considering the processing time till the date of effect of the agreements.

b) Number of villages covered through this scheme is not known. The impact of the scheme with respect to improvement in teledensity is not quantified to assess the actual success of the scheme.

c) Second Phase covering 10,000 towers is yet to take off even after 6 years of launching of Phase 1 when 57000 villages are yet to be covered with telecom facility.

d) Many of the towers commissioned are not working satisfactorily and not extending the expected service to the customers. It is to be noted that customer will avail the connection only if they find some utility of the same. Hence it is very important that the service extended is satisfactory.

Disbursement of Funds: As can be seen from Table 8, there is no improvement in the disbursement of subsidy even in the recent years. The disbursement of funds in the year 2011-12 is just 25% compared to the overall disbursement of 45%.

USOFO Structure for monitoring

USOFO is having centralized organizational structure supported by the Controller of Communication Accounts ( CCA ) in the field. The monitoring of progress of works is seen only as part of disbursement of subsidy by this group of Finance officers. There is no proper mechanism to check the progress of works at various stages and also for ensuring proper functioning of facilities already created.

Quality of Service provided by USOF projects

Whether it is village PT or the mobile infrastructure provided by the Service Provider, the quality of service provided is not being monitored on a real time basis. As already mentioned the inspections are happening as a part of verification of the claims submitted by the Service Providers. Complaints and servicing is maintained by the Service Provider who is extending the service with subsidy. Naturally there is enough scope for

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manipulation and this leads to poor quality of service extended to the customers. There is no provision escalating the complaint outside the channel of escalation extended by the Service Provider

4. SUITABLE MEASURES FOR IMPROVEMENT

Universal Service -

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From the pattern of utilization of USO fund it is clear that USOFO is not able to effectively utilize the fund available with it in an effective manner with the existing method of operation. As already pointed out USOFO is having a very thin structure centralized at DoT HQ and the rest is only a wing of finance officers to manage the subsidy disbursement. In view of this, it is strongly felt that USOFO should come out of the unproductive work of tender processing and evolve a mechanism which is Service Provider driven.

(a) Through rollout obligation path - The scope of rollout obligation is to be expanded for this purpose and it should be made obligatory for the Service Providers to ensure coverage in villages specified by the Licensor. Identified uncovered villages in the LSA are to be divided among the existing Service Providers on the basis of some specified criteria ( say revenue ) and the Service Provider concerned to be given subsidy to the extent of differential cost, the unrecovered portion of cost of providing service in such areas. Differential cost is to be derived using some scientific methods. Other Service Providers in the LSA are to be allowed to share the infrastructure, including the backhaul connectivity at subsidized rates as specified by the TRAI / Licensor. Subsidy to be disbursed only on ensuring spreading of network and quality of service. Non compliance of Rollout obligation to be contained using heavy penalty structure including cancellation of license, in extreme cases.

(b) Through BSNL – It is a known fact that reaching at break even for the service provided in remote villages will have a long gestation period. Naturally, Private Service Providers can be forced to give service only making them sacrifice some of the revenue they earned from operating in Urban areas. For the same reason there will be resistance from them all the time. Instead, it will be better if the work is allotted to the State owned Service Provider BSNL which is already having a nationwide network and infrastructure. Scientifically estimated subsidy to be given to BSNL with conditions of sparing the infrastructure to other Service Providers at the rates specified by TRAI / Licensor.

Quality of Service –

The service provided with subsidy should have a different mechanism of servicing and the same should be under the control of the Licensor / USOFO. The complaints booked in this centralized system can be passed over to the concerned Service Provider for immediate action and reporting back. In addition to normal escalations within the system of Service Provider, there should be mechanisms to escalate the same with the Licensor / USOFO whoever is responsible for its maintenance. This will naturally take care of the

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issue of Service Quality. Quality fo service can be further ensured through open houses, adalaths, inspections etc by the concerned authority.

Procedure for re-imbursement of subsidy

As already pointed out the verification about the provision of service is done at the time of re-imbursement of subsidy. Precisely for the same reason, the kind of report to be submitted by the Service Provider is quite voluminous. The process of submission of the claim is a laborious activity for the Service Provider and CCA offices alike. Having a mechanism as specified above for ensuring quality of service, the subsidy payment can be done on getting a report regarding successful compliance of conditions of operation from the concerned agency. This will make subsidy disbursement very simple and quick.

USOFO structure for monitoring

Engineering wings of the Licensor in the form Telecom Enforcement Resource and Monitoring ( TERM ) cells are already available in all LSAs. The work of monitoring the progress of USO funded projects to be entrusted to them with sufficiently augmenting the existing units.

Conclusion

The capacity of Service Providers of this country is a proven one with the kind of growth of telecom sector surpassing almost all targets set. Regulator could really bring in revolution in telecom sector. Now what is required is a bit of fine tuning in a logical way, taking Service Providers into confidence and facilitating them using the funds available in hand. The structural change in the disbursement procedure will definitely make this feasible. This will benefit the Service Providers and the customers alike.

Table I Summary of Village Public Telephones (VPTs) as on 31.05.2013

Sl. No.

Name of the Telecom Service

Area/ State

No. of Inhabited Villages as per Census 2001

Village Public Telephones provided by

BSNL

Village Public Telephones provided by

Private

Total Village Public

Telephones provided

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Operators

1 ANDAMAN & NICOBAR 501 352 0 352

2 ANDHRA PRADESH 26613 24260 845 251053 ASSAM 25124 24688 0 246884 BIHAR 39032 38941 0 389415 JHARKHAND 29354 28807 0 288076 GUJARAT 18159 16260 1791 180517 HARYANA 6764 6678 0 6678

8 HIMACHAL PRADESH 17495 17408 0 17408

9 JAMMU & KASHMIR 6417 6384 0 6384

10 KARNATAKA 27481 27449 0 2744911 KERALA 1372 1372 0 1372

12 MADHYA PRADESH 52117 51986 0 51986

13 CHATTISGARH 19744 18214 0 1821414 MAHARASHTRA 41442 39776 878 4065415 MEGHALAYA 5782 5247 0 524716 MIZORAM 707 704 0 70417 TRIPURA 858 858 0 858

18 ARUNACHAL PRADESH 3863 2774 0 2774

19 MANIPUR 2315 1263 0 126320 NAGALAND 1278 2171 0 217121 ODISHA 47529 45215 0 4521522 PUNJAB 12301 12065 0 1206523 RAJASTHAN 39753 38996 572 3956824 TAMILNADU 13837 13837 0 13837

25 CHENNAI METRO CITY 1655 1655 0 1655

26 UTTAR PRADESH (EAST) 74161 74145

0 74145

27 UTTAR PRADESH (WEST) 23781 23667 0 23667

28 UTTARAKHAND 15761 15366 0 1536629 WEST BENGAL 37062 36481 0 36481

30 CALCUTTA METRO CITY 893 613 0 613

31 SIKKIM 450 429 0 429  TOTAL 593,601 578,061 4,086 582,147

Table 1A: VPTs provided under Bharat Nirman-I as on 31.05.2013

Page | 23

Sl. No.

Name of the Telecom Service

Area/ State

Number of villages

targetted to be provided with VPTs under

Bharat Nirman-I

VPTs provided

on Satellite

Technology

VPTs provided on Non-Satellite

Technology

Total VPTs provided till

31.08.2012 i.e. till closure of rollout period of Bharat Nirman-I scheme

1 Andaman & Nicobar 0 0 0 0

2 Andhra Pradesh 675 0 675 6753 Assam 8775 0 8775 87754 Bihar 0 0 0 05 Jharkhand 1564 0 1564 15646 Gujarat 4097 25 4072 40977 Haryana 0 0 0 08 Himachal Pradesh 1000 36 964 10009 Jammu & Kashmir 1753 176 1572 1748

10 Karnataka 0 0 0 011 Kerala 0 0 0 012 Madhya Pradesh 11854 20 11834 1185413 Chhattisgarh 3509 120 3389 350914 Maharasthra 6275 198 6072 627015A Meghalaya (NE-I) 1504 545 818 1363

15B Mizoram (NE-I) 93 43 50 93

15C Tripura (NE-I) 75 0 75 75

16A

Arunachal Pradesh (NE-II) 646 333 313 646

16B Manipur (NE-II) 861 314 547 861

16C Nagaland (NE-II) 28 1 27 28

17 Odisha 4122 978 3144 412218 Punjab 0 0 0 019 Rajasthan 11924 52 11869 1192120 Tamil Nadu 0 0 0 0

21 Uttar Pradesh (East) 0 0 0 0

22 Uttar Pradesh (West) 0 0 0 0

23 Uttarakhand 3547 914 2586 350024 West Bengal 0 0 0 0  Total 62302 3755 58346 62101

Page | 24

Table 1B: VPTs provided under New VPT scheme (census 2001) as on 31.05.2013

S.No. Name of the Service Area

Number of villages targeted

to be covered with VPTs under the

New VPT Scheme

VPTs provided

on Satellite Technolog

y

VPTs provided on Non-Satellite

Technology

Total VPTs

provided

1 Andaman & Nicobar 321 0 172 1722 Andhra Pradesh 5871 0 3533 35333 Assam 2067 19 1758 17774 Bihar 2412 16 2312 23285 Jharkhand 2607 3 2149 21526 Gujarat 3125 23 1184 12077 Haryana 395 0 259 2598 Himachal Pradesh 1399 9 1333 13429 Jammu & Kashmir 388 8 428 43610 Karnataka 1056 0 1024 102411 Kerala 0 0 0 012 Madhya Pradesh 2172 0 3348 334813 Chhattisgarh 994 70 849 91914 Maharasthra 5851 0 4146 4146

15A Meghalaya (NE-I) 1944 46 1830 187615B Mizoram (NE-I) 23 0 22 2215C Tripura (NE-I) 136 0 136 136

16A Arunachal Pradesh (NE-II) 2431 37 1342 1379

16B Manipur (NE-II) 318 0 146 14616C Nagaland (NE-II) 161 0 159 15917 Odisha 5803 2 4133 413518 Punjab 301 0 65 6519 Rajasthan 4903 22 4251 427320 Tamil Nadu 682 0 682 68221 Uttar Pradesh (East) 6536 6 6458 646422 Uttar Pradesh (West) 1481 0 1382 138223 Uttarakhand 1964 22 1701 172324 West Bengal (WB) 6937 16 6076 609225 Sikkim (WB) 165 0 144 144

  TOTAL 62443 299 51022 51321

Table II: Status of Replacement of MARR VPTs as on 31.05.2013

Page | 25

Sl. No.

Service area Total number of MARR based VPTs targeted to be replaced with VPTs on new reliable technology

MARR VPTs replaced

with DSPTs (Satellite

Technology)

MARR VPTs replaced with non-Satellite Technology

Total MARR VPTs replaced till 30.06.2012 i.e. till closure of the scheme

1Andaman & Nicobar 72 0 72 72

2 Andhra Pradesh 10335 0 10335 103353 Assam 9294 0 9197 91974 Bihar 7431 0 7431 74315 Jharkhand 3570 0 3570 35706 Gujarat 4106 13 4093 41067 Haryana 1423 0 1423 14238 Himachal Pradesh 949 4 945 9499 Jammu & Kashmir 2295 5 2290 229510 Karnataka 14571 0 14571 1457111 Kerala 4 0 4 412 Madhya Pradesh 21111 37 21074 2111113 Chhattisgarh 5021 17 4871 488814 Maharashtra 15222 33 15180 1521315 North East-I 1901 169 1717 188615A Meghalaya 1056 141 902 104315B Mizoram 527 28 497 52515C Tripura 318 0 318 31816 North East-II 1531 28 1464 1492

16AArunachal Pradesh 440 9 408 417

16B Manipur 547 15 516 53116C Nagaland 544 4 540 54417 Odisha 11912 34 11852 1188618 Punjab 2135 0 2135 213519 Rajasthan 14574 7 14564 1457120 Tamil Nadu 6000 0 6000 6000

21Uttar Pradesh (East) 27339 0 27339 27339

22Uttar Pradesh (West) 9957 0 9957 9957

23 Uttarakhand 2876 23 2853 287624 West Bengal 11492 0 11492 11492  Total 185121 370 184429 184799

Table III: Circlewise progress report of RCPs upto 31.05.10

Page | 26

S. No.

  To be provided (As per Agreement)

To be provided (Recoinciled Figures) Achievement

Service Area BSNL RIL Total BSNL RIL Total BSNL  RIL Total1 Andaman & Nicobar 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 02 Andhra Pradesh 3677 1865 5542 3671 1761 5432 3671 1761 54323 Assam 1913 0 1913 1913 0 1913 1913 0 19134 Bihar 1302 3254 4556 1224 3243 4467 1224 3243 44675 Jharkhand 451 0 451 448 0 448 448 0 4486 Gujarat# 1829 272 2101 1461 66 1527 1461 66 15277 Haryana 145 626 771 88 402 490 88 402 4908 Himachal Pradesh 95 0 95 36 0 36 36 0 369 Jammu & Kashmir 122 0 122 56 0 56 56 0 56

10 Karnataka 1528 669 2197 1528 451 1979 1528 451 197911 Kerala 1 0 1 1 0 1 1 0 112 Madhya Pradesh  1759 0 1759 1730 0 1730 1730 0 173013 Chhattisgarh  627 0 627 627 0 627 627 0 62714 Maharashtra 3140 305 3445 1735 185 1920 1735 185 192015 North East-I 505 0 505 256 0 256 256 0 256

15A Meghalaya 28 0 28 28 0 28 28 0 2815B Mizoram 21 0 21 21 0 21 21 0 2115C Tripura 456 0 456 207 0 207 207 0 20716 North East-II 193 0 193 186 0 186 186 0 186

16A Arunachal Pradesh 7 0 7 7 0 7 7 0 716B Manipur  95 0 95 89 0 89 89 0 8916C Nagland 91 0 91 90 0 90 90 0 9017 Orissa 936 0 936 936 0 936 936 0 93618 Punjab 43 225 268 43 183 226 43 183 22619 Rajasthan 1416 0 1416 1413 0 1413 1413 0 141320 TN & Pondichery 1424 1769 3193 1416 1441 2857 1416 1441 285721 Uttar Pradesh ( East)  2295 4721 7016 1770 4062 5832 1770 4062 583222 Uttar Pradesh (West)  344 0 344 344 0 344 344 0 34423 Uttaranchal 5 3183 3188 4 3075 3079 4 3075 307924 West Bengal 1072 4542 5614 1072 3867 4939 1072 3867 4939  Total 24822 21431 46253 21958 18736 40694 21958 18736 40694

Page | 27

Table IV: Operator wise number of SDCAs where RDELs are to be provided

Sl.No. Service Area Service Provider Total number of

eligible SDCAs

Number of (SSAs)/SDCAsBSNL (171)

RIL (61)

TTL (37)

TTL (MH)

(5)

1Andaman & Nicobar - 0 0 0 0 0

2 Andhra Pradesh BSNL,RIL 117 81 36 0 03 Assam BSNL 26 26 0 0 04 Bihar BSNL,RIL,TTL 56 44 3 9 05 Jharkhand BSNL 66 66 0 0 06 Gujarat BSNL,RIL 120 99 21 0 07 Haryana RIL, TTL 16 0 3 13 08 Himachal Pradesh BSNL,RIL 22 11 11 0 0

9Jammu & Kashmir BSNL 19 19 0 0 0

10 Karnataka BSNL,RIL,TTL 117 66 43 8 011 Kerala BSNL,RIL 15 10 5 0 012 Madhya Pradesh BSNL,RIL,TTL 230 209 10 11 013 Chhattisgarh BSNL 88 88 0 0 0

14 MaharashtraBSNL,RIL,TTL(MH) 228 172 13 0 43

15 North East-I BSNL 27 27 0 0 016 North East-II BSNL 50 50 0 0 017 Orissa BSNL 96 96 0 0 018 Punjab BSNL,RIL,TTL 18 5 1 12 019 Rajasthan BSNL,RIL,TTL 203 118 5 80 020 Tamil Nadu BSNL,RIL 24 6 18 0 021 UP( East) BSNL,RIL,TTL 84 39 15 30 022 UP(West) RIL,TTL 21 0 12 9 023 Uttaranchal BSNL 29 29 0 0 024 West Bengal BSNL,RIL 13 6 7 0 0

  TOTAL   1685 1267 203 172 43

Page | 28

Table V: Status of RDELs provided as on 31.03.10

Sl.No.

Service Area Total number

of eligible SDCAs

Cumulative number of RDELs provided since 01.04.2005

BSNL RIL TTL TTL (MH)

Total

1 Andaman & Nicobar 0 0 0 0 0 02 Andhra Pradesh 117 222867 354275 0 0 5771423 Assam 26 65549 0 0 0 655494 Bihar 56 123097 14807 200537 0 3384415 Jharkhand 66 52701 0 0 0 527016 Gujarat 120 222150 181451 0 0 4036017 Haryana 16 0 19075 224167 0 2432428 Himachal Pradesh 22 14334 80013 0 0 943479 Jammu & Kashmir 19 26214 0 0 0 26214

10 Karnataka 117 205294 407572 108811 0 72167711 Kerala 15 554 237149 0 0 23770312 Madhya Pradesh 230 521441 111065 226292 0 85879813 Chhattisgarh 88 153340 0 0 0 15334014 Maharashtra 228 462851 113658 0 794244 137075315 North East-I 27 51221 0 0 0 5122116 North East-II 50 26858 0 0 0 2685817 Orissa 96 157752 0 0 0 15775218 Punjab 18 18578 5004 324270 0 34785219 Rajasthan 203 213725 88115 584168 0 88600820 Tamil Nadu 24 47114 292686 0 0 33980021 UP( East) 84 202785 74674 320564 0 59802322 UP(West) 21 0 144330 106917 0 25124723 Uttaranchal 29 55634 0 0 0 5563424 West Bengal 13 6356 62932 0 0 69288

  TOTAL 1685 2850415 2186806 2095726 794244 7927191

Table VI-A: Commissioning status of Towers (State-wise) as on 31.05.2013 in rural & remote areas for provision of mobile services

Page | 29

S. NO. State

Number of

Districts

Number of Mobile Tower sites to be set up under

Shared Mobile Infrastructure Scheme of

USOF

Number of Tower Sites

Set up

 1 Andhra Pradesh 22 596 596 2 Arunachal Pradesh 12 67 65 3 Assam 20 87 87 4 Bihar 37 453 453 5 Chhattisgarh 16 553 553 6 Gujarat 4 59 59 7 Haryana 8 12 12 8 Himachal Pradesh 11 258 258 9 Jammu & Kashmir 12 81 81 10 Jharkhand 18 273 273 11 Karnataka 26 381 381 12 Kerala 11 46 43 13 Madhya Pradesh 45 933 933 14 Maharashtra 33 956 956 15 Manipur 9 98 69 16 Meghalaya 7 107 107 17 Mizoram 8 43 43 18 Nagaland 7 51 50 19 Odisha 30 434 434 20 Punjab 3 14 14 21 Rajasthan 32 403 403 22 Sikkim 3 6 6 23 Tamilnadu 27 327 327 24 Tripura 4 115 115 25 Uttar Pradesh 66 653 652 26 Uttrakhand 13 184 184 27 West Bengal 16 163 163

  TOTAL 500 7353 7317

Table VI-B: Commissioning status of Towers (IP-wise) as on 31.05.2013 in rural & remote areas for provision of Mobile Services

Page | 30

S.NO.Name of

Infrastructure Provider (IP)

No of clusters

Number of Mobile Tower Sites to be

set up under Shared Mobile

Infrastructure Scheme of USOF

Number of Tower Sites Set up

 1

Reliance Communication Infrastructure Limited 5 407 404

 2 Viom Networks Ltd. 1 88 88 3 GTL Infrastructure Ltd. 4 410 410 4 KEC International Ltd. 4 381 381 5 BSNL 63 5758 5725 6 VODAFONE 4 309 309  TOTAL 81 7353 7317

Table VIIA Broadband connectons provided by BSNL under USOF plans up to April 2012.

Telecom Circle

BBG Rural USOF 99

BBG Rural USOF 150

BBG Rural USOF Combo 250

BBG Rural USOF Combo 550

BBG Rural USOF Combo 999

BB Home Rural USOF UL 799

BB Home Rural USOF Combo UL 899

BB Home Rural USOF Combo UL 500

Total USOF Connections

Andaman and Nicobar

1 238 12 3 31 0 011 296

Andhra Pradesh 1,370 11,714 7,015 1,330 143 58 57 29,008 50,695

ASSAM 165 721 18 0 384 15 3 12 1,318

Bihar 212 717 321 34 783 34 2 89 2,192

Page | 31

Chhattisgarh 128 916 134 29 2 10 1 491 1,711

Chennai Telecom Dist

88 292 925 230 22 2 73,844 5,410

Gujarat 719 9,052 1,344 899 58 19 2 7,751 19,844

Haryana 427 4,269 712 82 31 20 33 6,078 11,652

Himachal Pradesh 1,381 3,917 341 77 12 9 2 1,601 7,340

Jammu and Kashmir 139 763 97 32 1 8 3 598 1,641Jharkhand 99 734 86 2 317 4 0 40 1,282

Karnataka 1,327 12,091 2,873 802 106 55 50 6,361 23,665

Kerala 923 6,15513,95

4 1,184 71 8 30 60,371 82,696

Madhya Pradesh 233 2581 406 271 9 29 3 805 4,337

Maharashtra 2,966 15,221 2,468 664 78 169 14 6,986 28,566

NORTH EAST-I 9 155 32 2 495 2 1 35 731

NORTH EAST-II113 177 13 0 51 0 0

2 356

Orissa 297 2825 315 0 2045 0 0 77 5,559

Punjab 344 5,753 3231 303 107 35 13 32,399 42,185

Rajasthan 1,545 4,762 2,917 944 119 335 57 5,824 16,503

Tamilnadu 868 5092 3118 750 52 33 68 16616 26,597

Uttar Pradesh (East)1,048 4,569 144 130 8 34 4 1,731 7,668

Uttar Pradesh (West) 132 714 101 21 5 2 3 750 1,728

Uttaranchal 1,062 781 552 89 9 10 2 1,803 4,308

WB 1304 5249 1827 30 3887 60 7 322 12,686

KOTD 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

TOTAL 16,900 99,458 42,956 7,908 8,826 951 362 183,605 360,966

Page | 32

Table VII B: Installation report of BB Kiosk in rural areas under USOF agreement for April -12

CircleInstalled up to

March-12Installed up to

April-12Installed in

April-12

Andaman and Nicobar 1 1 0

Andhra Pradesh 1122 1101 -21

Assam 84 84 0

Bihar 157 158 1

Chennai Telecom Distt 23 23 0

Chhatishgarh 97 97 0

Gujarat 466 471 5

Haryana 136 136 0

Himachal Pradesh 103 99 -4

Jammu and Kashmir 42 43 1

Jharkhand 76 76 0

Karnataka 1118 1120 2

Kerala 240 250 10

Madhya Pradesh 1077 1077 0

Maharashtra 452 707 255

North East I 8 8 0

North East Il 0 0 0

Orissa 265 301 36

Punjab 546 546 0

Rajasthan 1295 1294 -1

Tamilnadu 1123 1132 9

Page | 33

Uttar Pradesh (East) 389 393 4

Uttar Pradesh (West) 434 440 6

Uttaranchal 74 74 0

West Bengal 35 35 0

Total 9363 9666 303

Table VII C PCs installation report up to April 2012 under PCs bundling scheme

  CIRCLE

Total Inatalled by HCL as on 31/03/2012

Total Inatalled by Novatium as on 31/03/2012

Total PCs installed upto 31/03/2012

Total Inatalled by HCL as on 30/04/2012

Total Inatalled by Novatium as on 30/04/2012

Total PCs installed upto 30/04/2012

Total PCs installed in April' 2012

1 A & N 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

2 A P. 658 356 1014 658 356 1014 0

3 Assam 49 0 49 49 0 49 0

4 Bihar 205 203 408 205 203 408 0

5 Chattisgarh 77 120 197 77 120 197 0

6 Chennai 0 231 231 0 231 231 0

7 Gujarat 532 98 630 532 98 630 0

8 Haryana 75 2693 2768 75 2693 2768 0

9 H.P 1065 1283 2348 1065 1283 2348 0

10 J & K 0 18 18 0 18 18 0

11 Jharkhand 24 7 31 24 7 31 0

12 Karnataka 120 1604 1724 120 1604 1724 0

13 Kerala 1282 38 1320 1282 38 1320 0

14 M P 315 624 939 315 624 939 0

15Maharashtra 475 407 882 475 407 882 0

16 N E I 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

17 N E II 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

18 Orissa 278 311 589 278 311 589 0

19 Punjab 56 1138 1194 56 1138 1194 0

20 Rajasthan 453 774 1227 453 789 1242 15

21 Tamilnadu 360 1717 2077 360 1718 2078 122 U P (East) 197 2668 2865 197 2668 2865 0

Page | 34

23 U P (West) 92 1103 1195 92 1103 1195 024 Uttaranchal 35 352 387 35 352 387 025 W. B. 171 16 187 171 16 187 0  Total 6519 15761 22280 6519 15777 22296 16

Table VIII: USO Fund Status 

Collection of Universal Access Levy vis-a-vis Allocation and Disbursement of Funds from USOF ( in Crores of Rupees)

 

Financial Year 

Funds Collected as UAL (as per DoT A/Cs)

Funds allocated

Funds disbursed

Reimbursement of LF and Spectrum Charges to BSNL 

Balance

(1) (2) (3) (4) (5) (6)2002-03 1653.61 300 300 2300 -946.392003-04 2143.22 200 200 2300 -356.782004-05 3457.73 1314.59 1314.59 1765.68 377.462005-06 3215.13 1766.85 1766.85 582.96 865.322006-07 3940.73 1500 1500 0 2440.732007-08 5405.8 1290 1290 0 4115.82008-09 5515.14 1600 1600 0 3915.142009-10 5778 2400 2400 0 33782010-11 6114.56 3100 3100 0 3014.562011-12 6723.57 1687.96 1687.96 0 5035.612012-13 6735.46 625 625 0  Total 50682.95 15784.4 15784.4 6948.64 27949.91

Page | 35

REFERENCES

1. www.dot.gov.in2. www.usof.gov.in3. www.trai.gov.in4. Department of Telecom Annual Reports 2006-07 and 2012-135. Department of New Telecom Policies, 1994, 1999, and 2012

Page | 36