DoT set to dial rural telephony next year

Telcos, govt reach broad consensus after initial hiccups.

The coming year is likely to witness a rapid roll-out of mobile services in rural areas as the department of telecommunications (DoT) has reached a broad consensus on the terms for telecom infrastructure sharing with both private and state-owned telecom operators. The government will extend financial support for rural telephony.

Sources said operators had junked the five models for infrastructure sharing presented to them by the government, and had instead agreed to base all further discussions on the broad guidelines proposed by Shantanu Consul, the administrator of the universal service obligation fund (USOF).

The model proposed by the USOF administrator envisages financial support from the government for both active (base tower stations and power) and passive (land and towers) infrastructure through a bidding process.

Before the bids, operators and the DoT had agreed to work out a composite benchmark to fix the cost of identified infrastructure components, the sources added.

The government will only provide financial support, while land acquisition, obtaining the right of way (ROW), electrical connections and the setting up of towers will be the sole responsibility of the bidder.

Following the launch of commercial services, L2 and L3 (the second and the third lowest bidder) would be permitted to share the infrastructure on mutually agreed terms between the service providers, failing which the L1 (the lowest bidder) would be free to accommodate other players, the proposal said.

"The proposal also adds that penalties would be imposed on the successful bidder if the latter failed to share its infrastructure with other players. Besides, the sharers will only get an amount for active infrastructure based on the predetermined ratio of the representative rate," a representative of an operator, told Business Standard.

There also existed a general view amongst all operators that the government must issue guidelines for infrastructure sharing, especially with regard to interconnection and specifications for towers, added an executive from the CDMA lobby.

DoT officials declined to specify the subsidy amount, but indicated that the total package would be on the lines recommended by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India. The regulator had recently proposed that the government give Rs 8,000 crore in subsidies for infrastructure creation to all access service providers who contributed towards the USOF.

Additionally, this proposal would be entirely restricted to infrastructure creation in rural areas, and 5,161 towns and cities would be excluded from the purview of the proposed support, DoT sources added. CONNECTING INDIA

Operators junked the five infrastructure models that the government favoured

Govt to extend financial support for both active and passive infrastructure through a bidding process

Guidelines for infrastructure sharing among players to be in place