Telecom revolution yet to reach 62,000 villages

India may have achieved a teledensity of over 65%, but as many as 62,443 villages are still to get a taste of telecom revolution that started since 1995-96, says the Economic Survey 2010-11.

"There are still about 62,443 uncovered villages, which would be provided with village public telephones (VPTs) facility with subsidy support from the Universal Service Obligation Fund (USOF)," the Survey said.

India's teledensity (phones per 100 people) stood at 64.34% in November, 2010, it added.

USOF was set up by the government to subsidise the development of the telecom sector in rural areas. All telecom operators contribute a part of their revenue to this fund whose corpus stood at Rs 13,789.28 crore.

But the government has failed to utilise the fund effectively asking telecom firms to go to rural areas. Most of the operators have skipped expansion in rural areas mainly due to low profitability and high cost of setting up infrastructure.

Support is provided from the USOF for operations and maintenance of VPTs in the rural areas.

Agreements were signed with BSNL, thereby 40,101 villages have been covered under VPTs. As on December 31, 2010, 61,985 VPTs have been provided by BSNL, it said.

In order to provide broadband connectivity to rural areas under the purview of USOF, out of a total of 8.88 lakh wireline broadband connections, 2.32 lakh have been provided till November 30, 2010, the Survey added.

The country's total telecom subscriber base stood at 764.77 million at the end of November 30, 2010, driven by active participation of the private players, especially in rural areas.

"The telephone user base (comprising mobile and landline connections) rose to 764.77 million as on November 30, 2010 from 76.54 million telecom subscribers in 2004," the Economic Survey 2010-11 tabled in Parliament today said.