city02 63 Report post Posted September 29, 2004 Spread across nineteen states in India, residents in fifty thousand villages, where PCOs were hitherto unheard of, will soon be able to use a phone from a PCO in their own village. Reliance Infocomm and Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd will share the contract for setting up community phones in these 50,000 villages, with support from the Universal Services Obligation (USO) fund.The support from the USO fund comprises a front loaded subsidy and an equated annual subsidy over a period of seven years. The operators are required to cover at least 20 percent of the villages within one year from the effective date of the agreement and a minimum of 60 percent by the end of second year. The balance shall be provided by the end of third year. The USO Fund Administrator has plans to cover all the 5.7 lakh villages of India with public phones. The competitive bidding is reported to have resulted in bringing down the cost of the project by about 20 percent. The USO Fund Administrator has also initiated the process for setting telephones in village households. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
