1. 8 th December 2011 New Delhi 1 Department of Telecommunications

2. 2 CategoryAssamNorth EastAll India Rural27.47%33.51%36.81% Urban142.96%145.80%166.54% Total44.91%60.72%76.03% Tele-density as on 31Oct. 2011

3. 3 Subscribers as on 31Oct. 2011 CategoryAssamNorth EastAll India Wireline (PSU) 248683 252274 26990602 Wireline (Private) 2508 225 6199025 Wireline (Total) 251191 252499 33189627 Wireless (PSU) 1538629 1625995 101818045 Wireless (Private) 12052318 6586028 779592774 Wireless (Total) 13590947 8212023 881410819 Total 13842138 8464522 914600446

4. 4 Broadband connections in North-East (BSNL)

5. 5 Broadband coverage in NE Region (BSNL)

6. 6 Common Service Centers (CSCs) coverage in NE Region

7. 7

8. 8  Universal Service Obligation Fund (USO Fund) was created w.e.f. 01.04.2002, with an amendment of Indian Telegraph Act  A percentage of Viability-Gap is funded to meet the Universal Service Obligations for spread of telecom facilities in remote and rural areas  Originally the thrust was on public & individual access which included Village Public Telephones (VPTs), MARR replacements and Rural Community Phones (RCPs) and Rural lines to individual users (RDELs)  In December 2006, Indian Telegraph Act was amended to include the activities of shared infrastructure, mobile services, broadband connectivity, general infrastructure like OFC etc

9. 9  Funded through Universal Access Levy @ 5% of Adjusted Gross Revenue (AGR) from all Service Providers except the pure value added service providers like Internet, Voice Mail, E-Mail service providers etc  Levy amount is credited to Consolidated Fund of India and made available to USOF after due appropriation by the Parliament  Non-lapsable fund  Non-plan budget till 2010-11. Now it is budgeted under Plan-expenditure  Bidding process followed for USOF activities

10. 10  Activities under USO Fund are taken up under different Streams of Indian Telegraph Rules  Stream I : Provision of Public Telephone Services  Stream II : Provision of Household Telephones in Net High Cost rural & remote Areas  Stream III : Creation of Infrastructure for provision of Mobile Services in rural & remote areas  Stream IV : Provision of Broadband connectivity to villages in a phased manner  Stream V : Creation of general infrastructure in rural and remote areas for development of telecom facilities  Stream VI: Induction of new technological developments in the telecom sector in rural and remote areas

11. 11  Village Public Telephones (VPTs) have been provided in 37,166 villages out of the total of 40,377 inhabited villages in North Eastern Region, with financial support from USO Fund  Remaining villages are expected to be provided with VPTs by May’2012

12. 12 S. No. StateTotal No. of Villages as per Census 2001 No. of inhabited Villages as per Census 2001 No. of Villages covered with VPTs No. of Villages yet to be covered with VPTs 1.Assam26,31225,12424,292 832 2.Meghalaya6,0275,7824,882 900 3.Mizoram817707704 3 4.Tripura870858 0 5.Manipur2,3912,3152,143 172 6.Arunachal Pradesh4,0653,8632,595 1,268 7.Nagaland1,3171,2781,263 15 8.Sikkim452450429 21 Total42,25140,37737,166 3,211

13. 13  Dysfunctional VPTs working on Multi Access Radio Relay (MARR) technology are being replaced with that of reliable technology VPTs  As on Oct’ 2011, BSNL has replaced 12600 existing dysfunctional Multi Access Radio Relay (MARR)based VPTs in North Eastern Region with reliable technology VPTs (out of 12,796)  Replacement of remaining MARR based VPTs is possible only by satellite phones

14. 14 S. No. StateTotal MARR based VPTs to be replaced MARR based VPTs replaced upto 31.10.2011 Balance MARR based VPTs to be replaced 1.Assam9,2949,19797 2.Meghalaya1,05699957 3.Mizoram5275252 4.Tripura318 0 5.Manipur54753116 6.Arunachal Pradesh44041624 7.Nagaland544 0 8.Sikkim70 0 Total12,79612,600196

15. 15 S. No. StateTotal RCPs to be provided RCPs provided 1.Assam1,913 2.Meghalaya28 3.Mizoram21 4.Tripura207 5.Manipur89 6.Arunachal Pradesh77 7.Nagaland90 8.Sikkim00 Total2,355 2355 Rural Community Phones (RCPs)] were to be provided by BSNL in North Eastern Region in villages with population exceeding 2,000 and not having PCO facility

16. 16  Agreements were signed with M/s BSNL in March 2005 for provision of individual rural household Direct Exchange Lines (RDELs) to be installed during 01.04.2005 and 31.03.2007 in North Eastern Region  RDELs were to be installed in the eligible 104 Short Distance Charging Areas (SDCAs), where cost of providing telephone connection is more than the revenue earned  1,44,791 RDELs have been provided in North East states till 31.03.2010 i.e. till the closure of the scheme

17. 17 S. No. StateTotal No. of SDCAs No. of Eligible SDCAs RDELs installed 1.Assam462665,549 2.Meghalaya141311,054 3.Mizoram9913,081 4.Tripura7527,086 5.Manipur13106,436 6.Arunachal Pradesh33302,781 7.Nagaland10 17,641 8.Sikkim211,163 Total1341041,44,791

18. 18  The Scheme was launched for Setting up and managing infrastructure sites for provision of mobile services in rural and remote areas, where there is no existing fixed wireless/ mobile coverage  The habitations of more than 2000 populations covered  Infrastructure so created to be shared by three service providers for provision of mobile services  The agreements effective from 01.06.2007 were signed with the successful bidders in May 2007  As on 31.10.2011, 520 towers out of 574 towers have been set up in NE Region

19. 19 S. No. StateName of the Infrastructure Provider Total Number of Towers to be setup Number of Towers commissioned as on 31.10.2011 % Achievement 1.AssamRCIL87 100 2.MeghalayaKEC10810799.07 3.MizoramKEC433786.04 4.TripuraBSNL115 100 5.ManipurBSNL976364.29 6.Arunachal Pradesh BSNL676161.85 7.NagalandBSNL514486.27 8.SikkimVESL66100 Total57452090.59%

20. 20 S. No. StateNo. of Towers commissio ned as on 31.10.2011 BTS installed Aircel BTS installed RTL/RCL BTS installed BSNL Total BTSs commissioned as on 31.10.2011 1.Assam 87 261 2.Meghalaya 107 886069217 3.Mizoram 37 2452352 4.Tripura 115 781291181 5.Manipur 63 633039 6.Arunachal Pradesh 61 454058 7.Nagaland 44 612018 8.Sikkim 6 NA5 11 (6 VESL, 5 RTL) Total 520 293268270837/ 1560

21. 21  An Agreement was signed with BSNL on 20.01.09 for subsidy disbursement towards provision of wire-line broadband connectivity (with 512 kbps) in rural areas.  Rollout targets are to be met by 2014  The subsidy disbursement is for  Broadband connections,  Customer Premises Equipment (CPE)  Computer/Computing devices  Setting up of Kiosks for public access to broadband services.  Individual Users, Institutional Users such as Gram Panchayats, Hr. secondary schools and Public Health Centers, Kiosks etc are entitled for support

22. 22 S. No. StateNo. of Rural Exchanges No. of Broadband Connections to be Provided Broadband Connections Provided 1.Assam42913,2991,709 2.Meghalaya561,73697 3.Mizoram351,085177 4.Tripura581,798465 5.Manipur541,674149 6.Arunachal Pradesh1053,255372 7.Nagaland621,92239 8.Sikkim471,45760 Total84626,2263,068

23. 23  The scheme envisages to provide subsidy support for augmentation, creation and management of intra-district SDHQ-DHQ OFC Network  The aim is to make available the network capacity of 2.5 Gbps (minimum) on sharing basis to other service providers for transport of rural/remote area traffic at the prescribed rates  To start with, Assam has been taken up as first state. BSNL (the selected bidder) has installed about 163 nodes so far (Out of 354)  USOF subsidy will be Rs. 98.89 Crore

24. 24  Total Fund collected till Mar’ 2011: Rs.37,223.92 Crore  Balance as on Mar’ 2011: Rs.16,803.84 Crore  Total fund allocated for FY2011-12: Rs.1650 Crore  Total Subsidy disbursed by USO Fund till Oct’ 2011: Rs.14917.07 Crore  Total Subsidy disbursed in North Eastern Region: Rs.321.9 Crore  Total Subsidy disbursed to BSNL: Rs.13039.29 Crore

25. 25 AreaMARR-AMARR-BMOB-IRCPRDEL-ARDEL-BRDEL-DRDEL-X NEW VPT- I NEW VPT- II VPT OPEX WIRELINE- BB Grand Total ASSAM 31.971.554.766.3433.1951.488.843.6017.110.0017.612.09178.54 NE-I 3.171.8515.840.208.1629.833.443.315.812.366.550.2880.81 NE-II 3.230.623.140.2914.6626.25 4.946.581.480.860.5062.55 Total for NER 38.374.0223.746.8356.01107.5612.2811.8529.53.8425.022.87321.9

26. 26  Augmentation of Intra-District SDHQ-DHQ OFC Network Scheme in NE-I (Meghalaya, Manipur, Tripura) to be executed by RailTel and Subsidy is Rs. 89.50 Crore  Augmentation of Intra-District SDHQ-DHQ OFC Network Scheme in NE-II (Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur & Nagaland) and subsidy is Rs.298.50 Crore  A scheme is envisaged for provision of mobile services in all left out uncovered rural & remote areas of the country including those in North Eastern States

27. 27  To create an incremental optical fibre network to connect all the 2,50,000 Gram Panchayats by OFC  Size of the incremental network : Approx. 0.5 million route-km  An SPV (Special Purpose Vehicle) will be the executing agency.  Tri-partite agreement between Central Government, State Governments and Executing Agency for providing Right of Way  Non-discriminatory access to all the service providers  The network is proposed to be completed in 2 years’ time with an expenditure of Rs.20,000 Crore

28. 28  Difficulty in acquisition of land  Frequent cable cut during road widening and repair work by road authorities  Cable cut by other operators during laying of pipe by them  Cutting of cable by antisocial elements  Disruption of cable due to land slides and other natural calamities  Poor electric supply

29. 29  Difficult working conditions in the region  Difficulty in transportation of telecom goods  Due to Insurgency, it is difficult to develop transmission network in North Cachar Hill and Manipur State  Limited number of contractors in NE Region and problems in executing the work from outsiders  Due to frequent bandh and difficult terrain the working period is limited

30. 30  Security for telecom installation is to be provided by State Governments  Free Right-of–Way permission for laying cable  Cases of cable cutting to be investigated  TAX on telecom goods may be exempted  Electric supply to be improved  Provisioning of electric connection be done on priority

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