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Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL), Reliance Infocom Limited and the Tata Teleservices have emerged as the successful bidders for providing rural Household Direct Exchange Lines (RDELs) in 274 Secondary Switching Areas (SSAs) comprising of 1685 Short Distance Charging Areas (SDCAs), under the Universal Service Obligation Fund (USOF). While BSNL could bag 171 SSAs, Reliance Infocom and Tata Teleservices bagged 61 and 42 SSAs respectively. BSNL was the sole bidder in Assam, North East and Jammu & Kashmir areas. The Letter of Intent for signing the requisite Agreement with USOF has been issued to these successful bidders. The Agreement will be in operation for five years commencing from 1.4.2005.
The support from USOF will be extended to the RDELs installed between 1.4.2005 and 31.3.2007. As per the present estimates of availability of funds it will be possible to provide about 8 to 10 million new rural subscriber connections. This will bring a major breakthrough in accelerating roll-out of telecom services in rural areas. The RDELs installed between 1.4.2002 and 31.3.2005 in the identified SDCAs will also be eligible for subsidy support at the same rate that has emerged out of the bid process for new RDELs.
RM/AMA- 170305 USOF - 274 SSAs bid
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