Dot to Start off Mobile Service Phase II in Rural Areas All Villages with 500 Population to be Covered

for Ministry of Communications | Date - 27-08-2008

The Department of Telecom is to soon launch the second phase of mobile phone expansion covering about 2 lakh villages.  With this, mobile services will cover all habitats with population of 500. About 11000 additional towers will be installed under the scheme. Details of the scheme are being worked out and locations of the towers being identified. The installation work is likely to be completed in one to one and half year’s time.

Under Phase 1 of the scheme, about 7900 towers, also called infrastructure sites, are already being installed in 500 districts spread over 27 states. Out of these, the state owned BSNL is installing over 6000 towers. The setting up and managing of these infrastructure services started in June 2007, with subsidy support from the Universal Service Obligation Fund (USOF) of DOT. The state-wise details of these towers under installation, are given in the table below.

(The number of towers is subject to change based on actual field survey and coverage achieved thereof as per the terms and conditions of the Agreements.)

About 1100 towers have already been set up. Mobile services from many of these towers have also started. Services from all the towers are likely to be completed in a phased manner by the end of the current year.  Infrastructure created is to be shared by three service providers for provision of mobile services. Number of towers commissioned by the successful bidders is given in table below

Akshay rout/vk