UNIVERSAL SERVICE OBLIGATION FUND
Transcript of UNIVERSAL SERVICE OBLIGATION FUND
UNIVERSAL SERVICE OBLIGATION FUND (USOF)
Department of Telecom, Ministry of Communication
Pankaj KumarJt. AdministratorUSOF, Govt. of India
ICT STAT AT A GLANCE: AUGUST 2019
• Wireless subscribers: 1171 Million• Wireline subscribers: 21 Million• Total : 1192 m( urban-681m +Rural-511m)
• Tele-density : overall 90 % (Urban-161 ; rural :57)
• Broadband subscribers: 615 m(597 on mobile)
• Cable/DTH: 170 m TV homes( DTH-70m ; Cable- 100m)
• Public Wi-Fi: about 5 lakh Access Points
UNIVERSAL SERVICE OBLIGATION: MEANS THE OBLIGATION TO PROVIDE ACCESS TO *TELEGRAPH SERVICES TO PEOPLE IN THE RURAL
AND REMOTE AREAS AT AFFORDABLE AND REASONABLE PRICE
DEFINATION OF UNIVERSAL SERVICE OBLIGATION
INDIAN TELEGRAPH ACT
Till 2006, ‘Basic’ was prefixed to ‘telegraph Services’
Policy Options for Universal Service
• Market based reforms
• Mandatory service obligations
• Cross subsidies
• Access deficit charges
• Private Public Partnerships (PPPs)
• Pay or play
• Universal funds
USOF: Policy Objectives
• Provide widespread and non-discriminatory access to quality ICT services at affordable prices to people in rural, remote, and unserved, areas.
• Provide an effective and powerful linkage to the hinterland thereby mainstreaming the population of rural and remote parts of the country.
• Ensure that universal services are provided in an economically efficient manner.
• Ensure that by developing hitherto unconnected areas, the benefits of inclusive growth are reaped by our nation, bringing in its wake rapid socio-economic development and improved standards of living.
USOF : Policy Underpinnings
• Availability: the level of service is the same for all users in their place of work or residence, at all times and without geographical discrimination
• Affordability: for all users, the price of the service should not be a factor that limits service access
• Accessibility: all telephone subscribers should be treated in a non-discriminatory manner with respect to the price, service and quality of the service, in all places, without distinction of race, sex, religion,caste etc.
UNIVERSAL SERVICE OBLIGATION FUND : INDIA
➢ Universal Service Obligation Fund (USOF) was set up by an Act of Parliament
in December 2003 by amending the Indian Telegraph Act, 1885.
➢ Objective of USO Fund is to provide access to telecom services in a non-
discriminatory manner to people in the rural and remote areas at affordable
and reasonable prices, thereby bridging the rural-urban digital divide.
➢ USOF inflow comes from the collection of Universal Access Levy (UAL)
through the license fee charged on licensee of DoT @ 5% of the adjusted
gross revenue (AGR)
➢ For commercially non-viable rural and remote areas, USOF provides subsidy
support in the form of Net Cost or Viability Gap Funding (VGF) to incentivize
telecom service providers.
BACKGROUND AND QUICK FACTS
• Universal Service Support Policy (USSP) came into effect w.e.f. 1.4.2002.
• Administrator, USOF was appointed on 01.06.2002
• Indian Telegraph Act 1885 was amended in 2003 to give statutory status to USOF
• Part IIA, Section 9A to 9D of the Act pertain to USOF
• The Rules for administration of the Fund known as Indian Telegraph (Amendment) Rules, 2004 were notified on 26.03.2004 • Rule 523: Defines Administrator and the Fund• Rule 524: Powers of Administrator
• Rule 525: Scope of support from USOF• Rule 526: The selection of the Universal Service Provider shall be made by a bidding process from amongst
the eligible operators
• Rule 527: Release of Funds to Universal Service Providers
POLICY PRESCRIPTION ON USOF
•NTP 1994 : One of the objective was provision of access to all people covering all villages as early aspossible, for certain basic telecom services at affordable and reasonable prices.
•NTP 1999: envisaged development of telecom facilities in remote, hilly & tribal areas and provision ofuniversal services to all uncovered villages.
•NTP 2012: ‘Right to broadband’ enshrined and envisaged provisioning of converged communication servicesin commercially unviable rural & remote areas using USO Fund
•NDCP 2018:➢ Provide Universal broadband connectivity at 50Mbps to every citizen ➢ BharatNet – Providing 1 Gbps to Gram Panchayats upgradeable to 10 Gbps ➢ GramNet – Connecting all key rural development institutions with 10 Mbps upgradeable to 100
Mbps ➢ JanWiFi – Establishing 2 Million Wi-Fi Hotspots in rural areas
➢ Ensuring connectivity for all uncovered areas in the North Eastern States, Himalayan region, LWE areas, Aspirational Districts, Islands and Border Areas
➢ Marginalized communities, women and persons with disabilities
➢ Promoting innovative, effective and scalable alternate technologies for remote areas
➢ Enabling access provision by any entity capable of fulfilling the Universal Service Obligation
➢ Redesigning the USOF and broadening its objectives to enable universal broadband access including for economically and socially weaker sections in urban pockets
➢ Strengthening institutional capacity of USOF to ensure effective rollout of services in uncovered, remote and rural areas
*Joint Administrator (F)
Administrator, USOF
Joint Administrator(Tech.& Admin)
DDG (I)
DDG (Special Projects)
DDG (II)
Director
Director
Dy Admin(F)Dy. Admin(Tech.)
Director
BBNL
*currently Addl. Admin(F)
USOF IN DOT: ORGANISATIONAL STRUCTURE
i. Stream-I : Provision of Public Telecom and Information Services.
ii. Stream-II: Provision of household telephones in rural and remote
areas as determined by the Central Government from time to time.
iii. Stream-III: Creation of infrastructure for provision of Mobile Services in
rural and remote areas.
iv. Stream-IV: Provision of Broadband connectivity to villages in a phased
manner.
v. Stream-V: Creation of general infrastructure in rural and remote areas
for development of telecommunication facilities.
vi. Stream-VI: Induction of new technological developments in the
telecom sector in rural and remote areas.
ITR 525: SERVICES SUPPORTED BY THE FUND
MAJOR SCHEMES OF USOF
1. BharatNet – To Provide Broadband Connectivity to all the 2.5 lakhs
(approx.) Gram Panchayats (estimated project cost Rs. 42,068 Cr)
2. Comprehensive Telecom Development plan (CTDP) for North East
Region (estimated project cost Rs. 8,121 Cr)
3. Comprehensive Telecom Development plan (CTDP) for Islands
(estimated project cost Rs. 2021 Cr)
4. Providing Mobile services in LWE areas (estimated project cost Rs.
7,330 Cr)
5. Providing Mobile services in Aspirational & Uncovered villages (under
process)
6. Special and Innovative Projects : E-Band solution, Air Jaldi, Free space
optics, WiFAR/ 4G LMLC based solutions, etc
❑ Uttar Pradesh
❑ Bihar
❑ Jharkhand
❑ Chhattisgarh
❑ Odisha
❑ West Bengal
❑ Telangana
❑ Maharashtra
❑ Andhra Pradesh
❑ Madhya Pradesh
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Mobile services in areas facing Law& Order
challenges because of extremist activities
10 States
106 Districts
Two phases:Phase 1: completePhase II: under finalization
A&N IslandsLakshadweepIslands
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Comprehensive Telecom Development Plan for North Eastern States
1. Mobile services in uncovered villages and along national highways2. Optical Fiber connectivity from District to Block Headquarters
Comprehensive Telecom Development Plan for A&N Islands
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1. Submarine OFC cable from mainland to Island2. Mobile towers in uncovered villages3. Intra Island OFC connectivity4. BharatNet project
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Comprehensive Telecom Development Plan for Lakshadweep Islands
1. Submarine OFC cable from mainland to Island2. Mobile services in uncovered villages3. Satellite Bandwidth Augmentation4. BharatNet project
Provision of Mobile Services in Uncovered Villages
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❑ Total Villages in the country as per Census 2011: 6,42,517
❑ Total inhabited Villages in the country as per Census 2011: 6 lakh (approx.)
❑ Number of uncovered villages as per initial estimate: 27,721
❑ Uncovered villages are being covered by various schemes such as
▪ LWE- II: 3465 towers
▪ CTDP NER: 5514 towers
▪ CTDP A&N: 170 towers
‘Digital India’ Programme
❑ Government of India has launched the ‘Digital India’ programme’ on 01 July
2015.
❑ The vision is to transform India into a digitally empowered society and
knowledge economy.
❑ ‘BharatNet’ (earlier NOFN) is the most important pillar of Digital India.
❑ Provision of mobile connectivity to uncovered villages is another vital area.
❑ Aims to establish network infrastructure for Broadband Highways accessible
on a non-discriminatory basis.
❑ Provisioning of affordable broadband services to citizens and institutions in
rural areas.
BharatNet: World’s largest Rural
Broadband Connectivity Program
BharatNet
BharatNet is a project of National importance that aims to
build a Highly Scalable Network Infrastructure accessible
on a Non-Discriminatory basis to provide On Demand, Affordable Broadband connectivity to rural masses &
institutions for realising the vision of
Digital India
Objective of BharatNet
Enable Broadband Access for 700 Mn
rural Indians
Build high speed optical fibre network infrastructure across
All 2.5 lakh Gram Panchayats
World’s largest Rural Internet Project
BharatNet : Network for filling the gap
Basic geographical Data for design
• Radius of each Block about 15 Km
• Average Panchayats per blocks 37
OLT
P
P
PP
PP
P
P
P
P
Existing OFC
P
PP
P
P
P
P P
P
P
P
P
P
PP
P
P P
Basic service architecture
OPnOP1
650 Districts
BBNL PoP
BBNL
NOC
Existing
Networks
BBNL PoP
PoI at Block Of N/W
PoI at GP
BBNL
Domain
Access
Domain
Access
Provider’s
PoPs
To be served
by User TSPs
Interconnect Agreement
between BBNL and User SPs
Retail Customers
6600 BLOCK
250,000 GPs
- - - -
PoI of OFCExisting 700,000 RKM OFC
500,000 RKM New OFC
BharatNetExisting Network
Block Gram Panchayat
1Government Offices, Schools, PHCs at GP
3Community Based Access at all Gram
Panchayats(Public Wi-Fi)
4 Digital village
E-learning. E-Health, e- Agriculture marketing, etc
56TSPs (4G / 5G), ISPs, Cable
operators, content providers
BharatNet Utilisation Model
FTTH
Integration with State wide area Networks
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BHARATNET: HISTORICAL TRAJECTORIES OF EVENTS
• Oct 2011: cabinet approval for NOFN to provide broadband connectivity on fibre to all 2.5 lakh GPs; indicative cost : 20,100 cr full CAPEX and 5/8 years net OPEX
• BBNL, set up in Feb 2012 as SPV for execution, monitoring, and as custodian of BharatNet assets/infrastructure
• July 2014 : 1st phase execution started ; 1,00,000 GPs to be connected
• July 2017 : Cabinet approved modified strategy for BharatNet Implementation
• December, 2017 : 1st phase completed; more than 1.18 lakh GPs made BB service ready
• 2018 : Implementation of phase II started; Serious attempts to utilize the phase I connectivity
• 2019 :idea of migrating to PPP model ; CSC awarded O&M and utilization of phase I
Network Design
IMPLEMENTATION STRATEGY
Phase-I
(1.25 Lakh
GPs)
Phase-II
(1.25 lakh GPs)
▪ Tapping existing BSNL fibre- only last mile
Fiber under BharatNet
▪ Only U/G incremental fibre
▪ 3 PSUs as IA: BSNL, PGCIL, RailTel
Block
New Fibre Laid
under BharatNet
GP1
GP2
▪ End to End Fibre from Block to GP
▪ Multiple connectivity mode –Underground,
overhead, radio, satellite
▪ Multiple Implementation Agencies
(State, PSUs, Pvt. sector)
Block
GP1
Old BSNL Fibre
New Fibre Laid
under BharatNetGP2
BHARATNET: IMPLEMENTATION STATUS
• Phase I completed in December 2017, phase II under implementation
• More than 380,000 km incremental OFC laid
• About 127,000 GPs provided with Broadband connectivity
• Utilization: Wi-Fi Hotspots in about 45000 GPsFTTH connections: about 33000Lease of dark fibre : 2300 kmBandwidth by TSP/ISP: about 4000 GPs
• Further utilization plan: 2 Wi-Fi in each of the 125,000 GPs of phase I
BHARATNET: WAY FORWARD
• O&M and utilization of 1st Phase assigned to CSC e-Gov services India Ltd, a SPV under MeitY. CSC to install 2 Wi-Fi Hotspots in each of the remaining GPs of 1st phase.
• Migrating to PPP model, wherein PSPs shall handed over entire Network on long term lease for up-gradation, maintenance, utilization, and marketing on VGF basis
• PSPs to provide BB Connectivity to minimum 5 development institutions such as schools, health centers, police stations etc
• PSPs shall be selected by open bidding. Each telecom circle as one package for tendering.
• DCC gave in principle approval of PPP model. Note for . Cabinet approval under process.
Challenges in USOF Administration
• underlying legal and regulatory framework
• Socio-political conditions- the Context
• Difficulty to adapt to changing requirements and focus
• Correlation between USF levies and demand
• Structural Issues : Institutional capabilities, Inter-agency coordination
• Managerial, operational and capacity issues
• Transparency, visibility and accountability in USF reporting
• Oversight and governance
• Project allocation process
CHALLENGES IN INDIAN CONTEXT
• Structural ▪ Projects can be awarded only to Licensed TSPs on bidding basis▪ TSPs are neither interested nor capable of executing projects in uncovered/undeserved
areas
• Technological▪ Selecting appropriate technology – technology choice- is limited by many factors
• Organizational ▪ low organizational capabilities- manpower, capacity, institutional mechanisms▪ Inter-agency Coordination
• Poor Financial health of BSNL • Vastness of the country, difficult terrain in Himalayan, Boarder, Interior areas• Lack of supporting infrastructure (power, road etc.)
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