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Rural connectivity on the rise in India

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CIOL Bureau
New Update

NEW DELHI, INDIA: Out of the total 400.05 million telecom subscribers in India, 28.17 per cent subscribers are from the rural areas.

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This was informed by Minister of State for Ministry of Communications and Information Technology, Gurudas Kamat, in reply to a question in Parliament today.

Though the envisaged target of the teledensity in rural areas by 2010 was 4 per cent, under the New Telecom Policy, 1999 (NTP-99), as of now it is more than four times of the targeted teledensity. It stood at 16.54 per cent as on May 31, 2009.

The minister also said the telecom regulator has released a draft recommendations on rural telephony for overcoming various constraints coming in way of increasing telecom penetration in rural areas in India.

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To meet the demand of wireline telephones in rural areas, BSNL is now laying cable up to 5 km of exchange against the earlier standard of 2.5 km.

Also BSNL has deployed Wireless in Local Loop (WLL) network in rural areas to meet the demand of scattered and far-flung rural areas. Remote and far-flung areas, which are not possible to be covered with terrestrial technology, are planned to be covered with Digital Satellite Phone Terminals (DSPTs), said Kamat.

Observing that the cases of unsolicited telemarketing calls have come to the notice of the Government from time to time, the minister said TRAI has issued a regulation on June 5, 2007 and a scheme of National Do Not Call (NDNC) Registry has been put in place since October 2007. The efficacy of the regulations is reviewed by TRAI from time to time.

The minister said the issue relating to ‘lock-up’ period for sale of promoter’s equity for UAS Licence was under consideration in the Department and the recommendations of TRAI were also sought on November 24, 2008 which was received on 12th March, 2009.

There shall be a lock-in-period for sale of equity of a person whose share capital is 10 per cent or more in the UAS licensee company on the effective date of UAS licence and whose net-worth has been taken into consideration for determining the eligibility for grant of UAS license, till completion of three years from the effective date of the UAS licence or till fulfillment of all the rollout obligations under clause 34, whichever is earlier.

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