DoT's mobile service to cover 2 lakh villages

NEW DELHI, INDIA: The Department of Telecom (DoT) would soon launch the second phase of mobile phone expansion covering about two lakh villages in the country. With this, mobile services in India will cover all habitats with population of 500, the department said.

In order to meet this goal nearly 11000 additional towers will be installed under the scheme, said the DoT in a press release. Details of the scheme are being worked out and locations of the towers being identified. The installation work is likely to be completed in one to one and half year’s time.

Under Phase 1 of the scheme, about 7900 towers, also called infrastructure sites, are already being installed in 500 districts spread over 27 states. Out of these, the state owned BSNL is installing over 6000 towers.

The setting up and managing of these infrastructure services started in June 2007, with subsidy support from the Universal Service Obligation Fund (USOF) of DOT.

About 1100 towers have already been set up. Mobile services from many of these towers have also started, the DoT said. Services from all the towers are likely to be completed in a phased manner by the end of the current year.

Infrastructure created is to be shared by three service providers for provision of mobile services.