Meeting on 17 th August 2011 at New Delhi 17/08/20111

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3 Teledensity in NE-I is higher than All India

17/08/20114 Growth in NER is mainly on Wireless Technologies

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9  USO Fund was created effective from with an amendment of Indian Telegraph Act. The objective was to provide access to basic telegraph services to people in rural and remote areas at affordable and reasonable prices.  Originally the thrust was on public & individual access which included Village Public Telephones (VPTs), MARR replacements and Rural Community Phones (RCPs) and Rural lines to individual users (RDELs).  In December 2006, Indian Telegraph Act was amended to include the activities of shared infrastructure, mobile services, broadband connectivity, general infrastructure like OFC etc.  Indian Telegraph Rules have been amended in 2004, 2006 and 2008 for implementation of USOF activities.

17/08/  Funded through Universal Access 5% of Adjusted Gross Revenue (AGR) from all Service Providers except the pure value added service providers like Internet, Voice Mail, service providers etc.  Levy amount is credited to Consolidated Fund of India and made available to USOF after due appropriation by the Parliament.  Provision for Grants and Loans from Government of India

17/08/  Activities under USO Fund are taken up under different Streams of Indian Telegraph Rules.  Stream I : Provision of Public Telephone Services  Stream II : Provision of Household Telephones in Net High Cost rural & remote Areas.  Stream III : Creation of Infrastructure for provision of Mobile Services in rural & remote areas.  Stream IV : Provision of Broadband connectivity to villages in a phased manner.  Stream V : Creation of general infrastructure in rural and remote areas for development of telecom facilities  Stream VI: Induction of new technological developments in the telecom sector in rural and remote areas

17/08/  Village Public Telephones (VPTs) have been provided in villages out of the total of inhabited villages in North Eastern Region with financial support from USO Fund.  Under Bharat Nirman 11,982 villages were planned to be provided with VPTs In North East. Villages with population less than 100, those affected with insurgency and those lying in deep forests were excluded for provision of VPTs  For the remaining uncovered inhabited 7245 villages as per Census 2001, USOF has signed agreement with BSNL in Feb This includes villages with population less than 100, remote & inaccessible locations etc.  All the remaining villages are to be provided with VPTs by Mar’2012.

17/08/ S. No. StateTotal No. of Villages as per Census 2001 No. of inhabited Villages as per Census 2001 No. of Villages covered with VPTs No. of Villages yet to be covered with VPTs 1.Assam26,31225,12424, Meghalaya6,0275,7824, Mizoram Tripura Manipur2,3912,3152, Arunachal Pradesh4,0653,8632,595 1,268 7.Nagaland1,3171,2781, Sikkim Total42,25140,37737,127 3,250

17/08/ S. No. StateVillages to be provided with VPTs Villages covered upto No. of Villages yet to be covered No. of Villages to be covered on DSPTs No. of Villages dropped from the scheme by BSNL 1.Assam8, Meghalaya1, Mizoram Tripura Manipur Arunachal Pradesh Nagaland Sikkim00000 Total11,98211,

17/08/ S. No. StateVillages to be provided with VPTs VPTs provided upto Balance VPTs to be provided % of VPTs pending 1.Assam2, , Meghalaya1,944301, Mizoram Tripura Manipur Arunachal Pradesh2, , Nagaland Sikkim Total7,2451,4805,

17/08/  Dysfunctional VPTs working on Multi Access Radio Relay (MARR) technology are being replaced with that of reliable technology VPTs  BSNL is to replace 12,796 existing dysfunctional Multi Access Radio Relay (MARR) based VPTs in North Eastern Region with reliable technology VPTs  Out of these MARR based VPT have been replaced as on  Replacement of remaining MARR based VPTs are not feasible on conventional technologies and are to be replaced by satellite phones.

17/08/ S. No. StateTotal MARR based VPTs to be replaced MARR based VPTs replaced upto Balance MARR based VPTs to be replaced 1.Assam9,2949, Meghalaya1, Mizoram Tripura Manipur Arunachal Pradesh Nagaland Sikkim70 0 Total12,79612,558238

17/08/ S. No. StateTotal RCPs to be provided RCPs provided 1.Assam1,913 2.Meghalaya28 3.Mizoram21 4.Tripura207 5.Manipur89 6.Arunachal Pradesh77 7.Nagaland90 8.Sikkim00 Total2, Rural Community Phones (RCPs)] were to be provided by BSNL in North Eastern Region in villages with population exceeding 2,000 and not having PCO facility

17/08/  Agreements were signed with M/s BSNL in March 2005 for provision of individual rural household Direct Exchange Lines (RDELs) to be installed during and in North Eastern Region  RDELs were to be installed in the eligible 104 Short Distance Charging Areas (SDCAs), where cost of providing telephone connection is more than the revenue earned  1,44,791 RDELs have been provided in North East states till i.e. till the closure of the scheme

17/08/ S. No. StateTotal No. of SDCAs No. of Eligible SDCAs RDELs installed upto Assam462665,549 2.Meghalaya141311,054 3.Mizoram9913,081 4.Tripura7527,086 5.Manipur13106,436 6.Arunachal Pradesh33302,781 7.Nagaland10 17,641 8.Sikkim211,163 Total ,44,791

17/08/  The Scheme was launched for Setting up and managing infrastructure sites for provision of mobile services in rural and remote areas, where there is no existing fixed wireless/ mobile coverage  The habitations of more than 2000 populations covered  Infrastructure so created to be shared by three service providers for provision of mobile services  The agreements effective from were signed with the successful bidders in May 2007  As on , 515 towers out of 574 towers have been set up in NE Region

17/08/ S. No. StateName of the Infrastructure Provider Total Number of Towers to be setup Number of Towers commissioned as on % Achievement 1.AssamRCIL MeghalayaKEC MizoramKEC43* TripuraBSNL ManipurBSNL Arunachal Pradesh BSNL NagalandBSNL SikkimVESL66100 Total %

17/08/ S. No. StateNo. of Towers commissio ned as on BTS installed Aircel BTS installed RTL/RCL BTS installed BSNL Total BTSs commissioned as on Assam Meghalaya Mizoram Tripura Manipur Arunachal Pradesh Nagaland Sikkim 6 NA5 11 (6 VESL, 5 RTL) Total /1545

17/08/  An Agreement was signed with BSNL on for subsidy disbursement towards provision of wire-line broadband connectivity in rural areas.  The speed of the broadband connections shall be at least 512 kbps always on, with the capability to deliver data, voice and video services in the fixed mode.  Support to be provided for 31 BB connections and 1 Kiosk per rural exchange  The subsidy disbursement is for  Broadband connections,  Customer Premises Equipment (CPE)  Computer/Computing devices  Setting up of Kiosks for public access to broadband services.  Individual Users, Institutional Users such as Gram Panchayats, Hr. secondary schools and Public Health Centers, Kiosks etc are entitled for support

17/08/ S. No. StateNo. of Rural Exchanges No. of Broadband Connections to be Provided Broadband Connections Provided 1.Assam42913,2991,660 2.Meghalaya561, Mizoram351, Tripura581, Manipur541, Arunachal Pradesh1053, Nagaland621, Sikkim471,45754 Total84626,2262,723

17/08/  The scheme envisages to provide subsidy support for augmentation, creation and management of intra-district SDHQ-DHQ OFC Network  The aims is to make available the network capacity on sharing basis to other service providers for transport of rural/remote area traffic at the prescribed rates  The approach is to utilize spare fiber and multiplex capacity wherever available in the network as well as utilize existing premises and upgrade the existing capacity as required, install new OFC routes to SDHQ still not having OFC connectivity  To start with, Assam has been taken up as first state. BSNL (the selected bidder) has installed about 127 nodes so far (Out of 354).

17/08/ AreaMARR-AMARR-BMOB-IRCPRDEL-ARDEL-BRDEL-DRDEL-PRDEL-XNEW VPT-I NEW VPT- II VPT OPEX WIRELINE- BB Grand Total ASSAM NE-I NE-II Total for NER

17/08/ Cumulative Subsidy Disbursement upto June 2011 – Rs. 14, Crore

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17/08/  A scheme is envisaged for provision of integrated mobile voice & broadband services in all left out uncovered rural & remote areas of the country including those in North Eastern States. The scheme also envisages use of renewable energy resources (solar/wind/hybrid) for powering of these sites.  USO Fund is working on a scheme for providing financial assistance by way of subsidy for the wireless broadband active infrastructure by utilizing the existing passive infrastructure available with the Telecom service providers. This scheme would provide broadband coverage to villages in a phased manner. The Scheme is likely to be launched shortly.  After the launch of the Augmentation, Creation and Management of Intra- District SDHQ-DHQ OFC Network Scheme in Assam, the NE Circles (comprising States of Meghalaya, Manipur, Tripura, Mizoram, Arunachal Pradesh, & Nagaland) are being taken up for implementation. The bids stand evaluated, Railtel has emerged as L1 bidder and signing of the agreement is under process.

17/08/  Difficulty in acquisition of land  Poor connectivity of roads and public transport  Difficulty in transportation  Lack of Electric supply/connections  Road cutting permissions not being received  Extortion/ demand of ransom/ collection of unauthorized taxes

17/08/  Frequent strikes, curfews and economic blockades  Frequent road cuts  Various permissions required to be taken from State Government Agencies- ROW, work permits, Tower charges  SWAN Project ready and awaiting State Govt. Project implementing agency

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