In a written reply to the Lok Sabha, Milind Deora, Minister of State for Communication and Information Technology has said that the projected investment in telecom sector by the government and the private players during the 12th Five Year Plan (FYP) period (2012-17) is Rs 9438.99 billion.
The targets for the 12th FYP include, inter-alia, provision of 1,200 million telephone connections by the year 2017. Deora stated that the government has taken various steps to give impetus to telecom sector growth in the country and to improve the quality of services. He informed the Lok Sabha that a scheme has been launched by the Universal Service Obligations Fund to provide subsidy support for setting up and managing 7,353 infrastructure towers in 500 districts, spread over 27 states, for providing mobile services in the specified rural and remote areas, where there is no fixed or wireless coverage.
According to Deora, as of November 30, 2013, 7,317 tower sites and 16,254 base transceiver stations have been commissioned by service providers under the scheme.
