The Hindu Business Line : DoT sets rollout obligation for USO cellular project

The Department of Telecom has decided to impose roll out obligation on telecom companies that win the bid for setting up passive cellular infrastructure in rural areas with support from the Universal Services Obligations (USO) Fund.

EoI invited

The DoT has invited expression of interest from telecom service providers and infrastructure providers to participate in the USO project and a one-year time period has been set for installing the passive network in predetermined districts of the country. The sites where the towers will have to set up and the number of towers for each district will be stipulated by the DoT.

The project envisages a total of 10,000 towers in rural areas where there are no telephone services. The company which wins the bidding process will be given financial support over a five-year period. Passive infrastructure in a mobile network essentially involves acquiring land, setting up towers and electrical and civil works that needs to be in place before operators can install the active infrastructure such as wireless radio equipment which bring mobile services to the consumers.

Support from USO

DoT had earlier decided that support from USO for the rural mobile project would be given in two parts. Part A of the subsidy will be given to companies, which sets up the passive infrastructure. Infrastructure Provider (category1) licence holders and telecom operators, which have licence for a given area can bid for this part of the project.

There are 115 IP(1) licence holders at present who primarily are involved in setting up infrastructure for service providers. Part B of the subsidy from the USO fund will be given to the operators who offer the mobile services. Expression of interest for the second part will be invited by DoT at a later date.

The deadline for submission of EOI for part A is September 18. The shortlisted applicants will be invited to go through a multi-layered bidding for setting up a prescribed maximum number of passive infrastructure sites as decided based on the net worth of the applicant. The successful bidder for part A will have to install at least 30 per cent of the towers in the district within 4 months, another 30 per cent within 8 months and the remaining 40 per cent within 12 months of the signing of the agreement.

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