(a) the amount sanctioned by the Union Government from the
universal service obligation (USO) fund during the last three
yers;
(b) the details of the organisations, institutions, to whom
the money was provided;
(c) whether the Union Government is satisfied with the
achievements made under this fund vis-Ã -vis the amount spent;
(d) whether the Union Government proposes to allow some more
organisations, institutions to share the USO Fund; and
(e) if so, the details therof ?
THE MINISTER OF STATE IN THE MINISTRY OF COMMUNICATIONS AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY (DR. SHAKEEL AHMAD)
(a) Rs. 300 crore, Rs. 200 crore and Rs. 1314.58 crore have
been allocated for financial years 2002-03, 2003-04 and 2004-
05 respectively.
(b) The details of the organisations, institutions, to whom
the money was provided are given in the Annexure.
(c) Yes, Sir.
(d) & (e) The Indian Telegraph (Amendment) Rules, 2004 provide
for criteria for selection of Universal Service Providers
through a bidding process from amongest the eligible
operators. The Basic Service Operators, Cellular Mobile
Service Providers and Unified access Service Licencees or any
other entities as may be specified in this behalf by the
Central Government from Time to time are elegible to
participate in the bidding process.
Annexure The details of the organisations, institutions, to whom the money has been provided from 2002-03 to 2004-05 Sl. Name of the Service Service Area No. of VPTs No. Provider installed for the quarter ending 31.12.2004 1 Tata Teleservices Ltd. Andhra Pradesh 1398 2 Reliance Infocom Ltd. Gujarat 3599 3 Bharti Infotel Madhya Pradesh 592 4 Tata Teleservices Maharashtra 2595 (Maharashtra) Ltd. 5 HFCL Pubjab 55 6 Shyam Telelink Ltd. Rajasthan 946 Rajasthan Total 9185