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Out of a total 300 Secondary Switching Areas (SSAs), major telecom service provider Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) has emerged as successful bidder in 184 SSAs while the Reliance Infocom Limited managed to get 97 SSAs. However there was competition between two service providers only in the case of 115 SSAs. The formal Letters of Intent for signing the Agreement are being issued to the successful bidders. The bidding process for providing Rural Community Phones (RCPs), under the Universal Services Obligation (USO) Fund, in about 48,310 villages having a population of more than 2000 people, with no other public telephone facility has been successfully completed. The competitive bidding has resulted in bringing down the cost of the project by about 17% from the reserve price.
The USO Fund Administration is moving ahead with plans to cover all the 5.7 lakh villages with public phones. It has already signed Agreements for disbursal of subsidy from fund towards more than 5,20,000 Village Public Telephones (VPTs) already installed in the Census 1991 revenue villages. The bids for remaining 57,000 such villages have also been invited and the process leading up to the signing of agreements is likely to be completed before the end of November, 2004. Agreements have also been signed for replacement of more than 1,80,000 VPTs on Multi Access Radio Relay (MARR) technology .Subsidy is being disbursed towards these facilities from 1.4.2002.
The DOT will invite bids soon for setting up Tele-Information Centres providing access for both voice and data in villages having population of more than 2000 people. So far a sum of Rs. 600 crore has been disbursed as subsidy to the Universal Service Providers. The disbursements during the current financial year are estimated to be around Rs. 2700 crore, subject to allotment of funds.
The support from USOF is also being provided to Rural households Direct Exchange Lines (DELs) installed after 1.4.2002 towards Capital and Operating expenditure and about 31 lakh Rural DELs have been installed upto 31.3.2004. Bids are also being invited very shortly for providing telecom facilities to new rural subscribers.
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