|
Lok Sabha
The Government has fixed a target of tele-density of 4% by the year 2010 as per 10th Five Year Plan for increasing the number of telephone connections in rural areas. This was stated by Dr. Shakeel Ahmad, Minister of State for Communications & Information Technology in the Lok Sabha today, in a written reply to a question by Prof. Vijay Kumar Malhotra and Dr. Laxminarayan Pandey.
The Minister further stated that as on 31.5.2005, there are 1.74 telephones per 100 population in rural areas. The office of Universal Service Obligation (USO) Fund Administrator, on the basis of a tender, has entered into agreement for provision of telephones on demand in 1685 Short Distance Charging Areas (SDCAs) which are loss making. Most of these SDCAs comprise of Rural areas.
Dr. Ahmed further informed that the Government is also considering provision of shared public infrastructure in these 1685 SDCAs to boost penetration of mobile phones. The Access Service Licence condition does not stipulate mandatory rural roll-out obligation, he added.
RM/AMA – 270705 Rural USQ 528
|
