UNIVERSAL SERVICE OBLIGATION FUND (USOF) Department of Telecommunications www.dot.gov.in 1
INDIAN TELECOM SECTOR 1060 million Subscriber base 151 million Broadband subscribers Second largest mobile network in the world Multiple Licensed Service Providers in each Licensed Service Area 2
Rural vs Urban Urban Rural Total Population : 397 million Teledensity : 153 % Population : 874 million Teledensity : 51 % Population : 1.25 billion Teledensity : 83 % 3
USO FUND - INDIA Created w.e.f 1 st April 2002 under Indian Telegraph (Amendment) Act. Objective: to provide Viability-Gap Funding for the development of telecom in rural and remote areas 4
SOURCE OF FUNDS & STATUS Funded through Universal Access Levy @ 5% of Adjusted Gross Revenue (AGR) from all Service Providers USO Fund Status : Subsidy of INR 311750 million (US$ 4.65 billion) disbursed Balance available is about INR 474110 million ( US$ 7.07 billion) 5
USO APPROACH Transparent bidding process for Viability Gap Funding Technology neutral and Operator neutral approach Stakeholder consultations for formulating schemes Work awarded by nomination basis also for certain schemes Non-discriminatory access to Infrastructure created with USO Fund 6
Subsidy streams of USOF Public Access Individual Access Mobile Connectivity Broadband connectivity General infrastructure Pilot Schemes Village Public Telephones Rural WLL Connections Mobile Infrastructure and services in uncovered areas BharatNet for broadband infrastructure and services OFC Infrastructure in Remote areas and Islands Pilots for Renewable Energy Technologies 7
ACHIEVEMENTS 8
PUBLIC ACCESS Village Public Telephones (VPTs) VPT is a public telephone installed in a village using Wireline/Wireless/satellite technologies (5,81,183 i.e., 97.9 % villages covered till date). Being executed by Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL). 9
INDIVIDUAL ACCESS USOF Subsidy to Service Providers for provisioning of Rural individual telephones in Commercially unviable rural areas 8 million rural telephone connections provided. Scheme Period : 01.04.2005 to 31.03.2010 10
SHARED MOBILE INFRASTRUCTURE SCHEME Support for shared infrastructure to facilitate mobile services in uncovered rural areas Towers installed by Infrastructure Providers (IP) Tower Infrastructure is shared by three Service Providers for provision of Mobile services 7317 Towers spread over 500 districts installed Scheme Period : 01.06.2007 to 30.11.2013 11
WIRELINE BROADBAND Broadband speed >= 512 kbps USO Support for : Broadband connections, Customer Premises Equipment (CPE) Computer/Computing devices Setting up of Kiosks for public access Agreement signed with BSNL 6,56,345 broadband connections and 15,671 Kiosks provided so far. Scheme period : Nine years from 20.01.2009 12
ONGOING USOF SCHEMES 13
BharatNet broadband for all National Network to provide high speed broadband connectivity of 100 Mbps in all Gram Panchayats (GPs) by 2018. Connectivity by optimal mix of laying underground OFC, aerial OFC, Radio or Satellite media. Provision of bandwidth to Service Providers at GP level on non-discriminatory basis. Last mile connectivity through service providers (TSPs/ISPs/Cable TV etc.) 14
Implementation Phases of BharatNet Phase 1 1,00,000 GPs under implementation to be completed by March, 2017. Phase 2 Balance GPs (approx. 1,50,000) to be connected by Optimal mix of underground OFC, aerial OFC, radio and satellite media, to be completed by Dec 2018. Phase 3 Future proofing the network : A state-ofthe-art network for 5G services and Internet of Things era with underground OFC in ring architecture, to be completed by 2023. 15
BharatNet : Phase 1 Progress Number of GPs : 1,00,000 OFC planned : 2,30,000 Km OFC laid : 1,33,342 km 16
Universal Access to Mobile Connectivity Aims to provide mobile connectivity to citizens living in rural and remote areas of the country to empower them with the fruits of mobile revolution for furthering socioeconomic development. About 55,000 uncovered villages without mobile coverage identified. The Government has planned to cover all uncovered villages in a phased manner by March, 2019, utilizing the Universal Service Obligation Fund (USOF). 17
CONCLUSION Indian USOF model : o Supports all telecom services for both voice and data o Technology and operator neutral o Open consultation processes o Non discriminatory 18
THANK YOU www.usof.gov.in 19