In a written reply to the Lok Sabha, Milind Deora, Minister of State for IT and Communications has said that the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) has rejected the requests of Bharti airtel, Reliance Communications (RCOM) and Reliance Telecom to partially exit from the agreement with the Universal Service Obligation (USO) Fund for sharing mobile infrastructure in rural areas.
RCOM, airtel and Reliance Telecom cannot exit the USOF agreement: Milind Deora
In 2007, a scheme was launched under the USO Fund to provide subsidy support for setting up and managing 7,871 telecom towers in 500 districts, in specified rural and remote areas.
RCOM wants to exit 4,537 sites out of 4,774 sites, while Reliance Telecom wants to exit 751 out of 3641 sites. Bharti airtel has sought permission to exit from 81 out of 1,174 sites.
As per the provisions of the USO Fund agreement, each tower site is to be shared by three different operators to provide mobile services. So, even if one or two operators fail to provide services in these areas, the remaining operators will.
Moreover, mobile services are being provided in rural areas by other operators from non-USO Fund supported sites as well.
Meanwhile, DoT has also constituted a high level committee to consider all aspects pertaining to the delay in roll-out of mobile service under the USO Fund scheme and to suggest appropriate action.
