The Universal Service Obligation Fund (USOF) under the Department of Telecommunications (DoT), has signed a tripartite memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Prasar Bharati and Open Network for Digital Commerce (ONDC) to proliferate affordable and accessible digital services across the country.
The objective of the MoU is to bundle broadband services with over-the-top (OTT) and e-commerce platform for the rural India riding on BharatNet infrastructure under the USOF.
The MoU was signed in the presence of Dr Neeraj Mittal, secretary (T), DoT, Niraj Verma, administrator, USOF, T Koshy, managing director and chief executive officer (CEO), ONDC, A K Jha, additional director general, platforms, Prasar Bharati and Sunil Kumar Verma, joint secretary, DoT.
The MoU will enable the bundled Prasar Bharati OTT as-a-service, including linear channels, live TV and on-demand content, among the end consumers while USOF will ensure efficient and high-speed broadband services in rural and remote areas.
The USOF has been instrumental in enabling highspeed broadband and mobile connections across gram panchayats (GPs) and villages in the country. Additionally, Prasar Bharati, with an unparallel legacy content, consumer reach and brand recall, will source and produce content that will run on its OTT platform. Further, ONDC will provide the technical expertise and necessary framework in enabling digital commerce in products and services. This will be expanded to cover more services like education, health, training, credit, insurance, agriculture amongst others.
