BSNL may not be sole telco implementing govt's free mobile scheme

Plan panel has asked Telecom Commission to reconsider the proposal to nominate BSNL as the sole implementing agency for the scheme

State-run Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL) may not get the sole responsibility to implement the government’s plan to give free mobile handsets to families in villages and tablet personal computers to students in government schools at an estimated cost of Rs 10,000 crore.

The Planning Commission has asked the Telecom Commission to reconsider the proposal to nominate BSNL as the sole implementing agency for the scheme. In its last meeting on September 10, the Telecom Commission has deferred its decision on this for further consideration of the Plan panel suggestions. The Telecom Commission is the highest decision making body in the Department of Telecommunications (DoT).

In a recent discussion, it is also stated the provision of Plan funds for implementation of the proposed scheme would have to be separately assessed in association with the department of expenditure and Planning Commission. The Telecom Commission, in its meeting, has also noted that the scheme may be budgeted only up to 2016-17, which is the terminal year of the 12th five-year Plan period.

The Telecom Commission has also recommended that the proposal would be placed before the Cabinet for approval after examination of the suggestions it has received on the scheme.

The proposed scheme is estimated to benefit about 250 million individuals in rural households and the free tablet programme would cover 9 million students.

The scheme would be jointly funded by the DoT and the Universal Services Obligations Fund (USOF) — a corpus for facilitating telecom services in rural areas.

According to the original proposal, tablets will cost around Rs 4,972.5 crore and about 60 per cent would be funded through USOF and the rest will be provided by DoT.

The proposed mobile phone scheme, on the other hand, meant mainly for workers under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme, is estimated to cost the government Rs 4,850 crore.

According to the proposal, all tablets and mobile phones will come with a three-year warranty, and the schemes will be implemented in three phases starting after March 2014.