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Govt to focus more on rural connectivity: Minister

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CIOL Bureau
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NEW DELHI, INDIA: The Minister of State for Communication and Information Technology Gurudas Kamat said that the government has taken an initiatives to provide telephone and mobile services in all the remote and scheduled areas in the country.

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As part of this subsidy support is being provided by Universal Services Obligation Fund (USOF) for installation of Individuals Rural Direct Exchange Lines (RDELs) in 1,685 Short Distance Charging Areas (SDCAs) in the country including 24 SDCAS of Tamil Nadu, where cost of providing telephones is more than the revenue earned, he said.

As on May 31, 2009, about 64.6 lakh RDELs have been providing in the country including 2.7 lakh lines in Tamil Nadu.

Subsidy support is also being extended by USOF for setting up of 7,440 Shareable Infrastructure Sites in the country including 325 towers in Tamil Nadu for provision of mobile services in rural and remote areas, where there is no existing fixed wireless or mobile coverage.

Out of these, 5,624 towers in the country including 283 towers in Tamil Nadu have already been commissioned under this scheme as on May, 2009, the minister said. The remaining towers are likely to be commissioned by September, 2009.

The Minister also informed Parliament that a drive has been undertaken to add two digits to the Pincode. This will indicate the postman beat. However, Gurudas Kamat said this would be limited to only select post offices and select large mailers who post thousand of mail pieces on regular basis.

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