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Maran meets service providers

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CIOL Bureau
New Update

NEW DELHI: Dayanidhi Maran, Minister for Communications and Information Technology has held a meeting with Chairmen and CEOs of access providers and infrastructure providers here to discuss the best possible way to increase the penetration of telecommunications in rural areas.

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The objective of the meeting was to exchange ideas and elicit the views of the Service Providers on how the infrastructure could be shared for providing wireless based services in the rural areas.

In his opening remarks, Maran expressed the determination of the Government to bridge the digital divide. He emphasized the need for percolating the benefits of the technological innovations to the rural areas.

He said “We must create infrastructure in rural areas which will take not only telephony but also broadband to villages.” He further stated that Universal Service Obligation Fund must be efficiently and effectively used for achieving this objective.

During the meeting, all members unanimously welcomed the initiative of the minister for extending support for providing cellular mobile services in the rural areas.

It was clarified that such support from USOF would be exclusively for rural and remote areas. It was also agreed that sharing of infrastructure would bring down the capital expenditure and help in reducing the prices at which the services would eventually be provided to the rural consumers.

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