THE MINISTER OF COMMUNICATIONS & INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY AND DISINVESTMENT (ARUN SHOURIE)
(a) to (h) A statement is laid on the table of the House.
STATEMENT TO BE LAID ON THE TABLE OF THE LOK SABHA IN
RESPECT OF PARTS (a) TO (h) OF LOK SABHA STARRED QUESTION
NO. 48 FOR 23RD JULY, 2003 REGARDING RURAL TELEPHONE
SERVICES.
Various telecom companies providing Basic services were
to cover all revenue villages with Village Public Telephones
(VPTs) by the end of 2002. These companies included 6
Private Basic Service Operators who were granted licences in
1997-98 as well as Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL). No
obligation to cover rural areas was imposed on companies
that were granted licences to operate Cellular Telephone
Service.
The licences granted from July, 2001 to October, 2001
to various companies for providing Basic Telephone Service
do not have roll out obligations in terms of coverage of
VPTs. Instead they are required to establish ‘Points of
Presence’ in equal proportion in each category of Urban,
Semi-urban and rural Short Distance Charging Area (SDCA),
typically a tehsil. In the first phase of roll out i.e. by
the end of two years from the date of grant of licence, they
are expected to achieve 15% of such coverage.
According to available information, State-wise status
of the achievement of VPT targets, as on 31.12.2002, is
given in the Annexure.
The reasons for shortfall from the targets include the following:-
(i) Poor performance by Private Basic Telephone Service Operators due to non-remunerative nature of VPTs.
(ii) Villages being in Naxalite infested and other insurgency affected areas.
(iii) De-population of villages.
(iv) Many villages having population less than 100.
(v) Clearance not being accorded for VPTs based on Wireless Local Loop systems in the States of North East and in J&K.
(vi) VPTs can be provided only by utilizing satellite as a media; this entails prohibitive cost.
Government is considering a proposal to support BSNL
for providing VPTs based on satellite media. Necessary steps
have been taken by BSNL to provide VPTs in the States of
North East and J&K on WLL. These will be installed after
receiving clearances from the concerned agencies. It is
expected that such VPTs will be provided by the end of 2003.
The Government has been persuading the private Basic
Service Operators to fulfil their committed roll out
obligations. Liquidated Damage Charges to the tune of Rs.
53.75 crores have been recovered from six Private Basic
Telephone Service Operators for delay in commencement of
service as well as delay in providing VPTs and Direct
Exchange Lines. A notice was issued in May, 2003 to Private
Basic Operators to provide VPTs as well as submit plans to
provide balance VPTs by the end of 2003 after excluding the
categories of villages identified as de-populated villages,
villages with population less than 100, Naxalite or
insurgency affected villages and villages to be covered by
satellite media in the first phase. They were informed that
failing these, steps to encash the Performance Bank
Guarantees will be initiated. Five Basic Operators have
responded to the notice and submitted plans to cover 5749
villages in four service areas by December, 2003 to March,
2004. This excludes 2709 villages which have phones but not
public phones. One service area, i.e. Punjab had already
been fully covered with VPTs. One Basic Operator has
approached the court and obtained a stay against the notice
that was issued. The notices have resulted in an increase,
as per available information, in the number of VPTs
installed by private operators from 10, 648 at the end of
May, 2003 to 11,632 at the end of June, 2003, i.e. by
approximately 10%. The fulfilment of the commitments now
given by the private operators will be closely monitored and
Performance Bank Guarantees would be liable to be encashed
in case of failure.
ANNEXURE
STATUS OF VPTs STATE-WISE AS ON 31.12.2002
S.No Service Area Total VPTs VPTs Total No. of provided provided Revenue by BSNL by Villages Private Basic Telephone Operators
1. Andaman & Nicobar 201 197 - 197
2. Andhra Pradesh 29460 23419 1314 24733
3. Assam 24685 17691 - 17691
4. Bihar 72780 64640 - 64640
5. Gujarat 18125 11214 2894 14108
6. Haryana 6850 6811 - 6811
7 Himachal Pradesh 16925 16585 - 16585
8. J & K 6764 4094 - 4094
9. Karnataka 27066 27060 - 27060
10. Kerala 1468 1468 - 1468
11. Madhya Pradesh 71526 52230 348 52578
12. Maharashtra 42467 31541 1140 32681
13. North East 14145 5249 - 5249
14. Orissa 46989 40314 - 40314
15. Punjab 12687 12687 734 13421
16. Rajasthan 39483 23858 693 24551
17. Tamil Nadu 17899 17899 - 17899
18. U.P. (East) 79792 75855 - 75855
19. U.P. (West) 39214 32864 - 32864
20. West Bengal 38774 37743 - 37743
21. Delhi 191 191 - 191
Total 607491 503610 7123 510733
Bihar service area includes Bihar and Jharkhand States, Madhya Pradesh Service area includes Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh States, North East service area includes States of Meghalaya, Nagaland, Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur, Tripura and Mizoram, Punjab Service area includes State of Punjab and U.T. of Chandigarh, and Uttar Pradesh (West) service area includes western parts of Uttar Pradesh and Uttaranchal State.
