This section features background information and resources relevant to the current research theme. It includes resources produced by WDR and external sources and is organised by regions and topics. An archive of resources recommended in previous research cycles is also available along with news from the WDR/Intelecon Regulatory News Service.
India: USO fund and rural broadband Print E-mail
Tuesday, 25 September 2007
India’s Universal Service Obligation (USO) Fund will hold a tender in October for the provision of broadband services in rural and remote areas.

The tender would be designed to enable the country to meet the government’s target of 20 million broadband connections by 2010. Fixed and mobile operator BSNL wants to have 18 million broadband subscribers by the end of 2010. As of the end of August, there were 2.56 million broadband subscribers in India. From April to August, India added 220,000 broadband connections.

Recently, Department of Telecommunications secretary DS Mathur wrote a letter to a number of large telecom providers to say that the government would provide back-haul capacity to help service providers offer broadband connectivity in rural areas. The idea is to connect the district headquarters and block headquarters by providing back-haul capacity between them. To accomplish this objective, the USO Fund is working with Telecom Consultants India (a PSU under the Ministry of Communications) to conduct a study and collect information from all service providers on fibre optic networks in rural and remote areas.

Source: Diligent Media - WDR/Intelecon Regulatory News.