DoT seeks bids for rural services

The Department of Telecommunications (DoT) has set Thursday as the last date for submission of expressions of interest by infrastructure providers for setting up and managing sites to enable service providers offer mobile services in rural areas, according to information posted on the DoT website.

The infrastructure created is to be shared by three service providers. This is the second phase of the department’s plan to spread rural telephony by subsidising infrastructure providers via its Universal Services Obligation Fund, which is collected by charging telecom service providers 5 per cent of their adjusted gross revenue.

Under this phase, 11,000 towers will be installed in 200,000 villages with a minimum population of 500.

In phase I of the scheme, 1,060 towers have already been set up out of the 7,871 towers planned for 500 districts spread over 27 states. Services from all the towers in the first phase are likely to be operationalised by the end of the current year.