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Presentation on NER VISION 2020 FOR TELECOM Before 59 th NEC Plenary, 28.9.2010. State wise Future Plan with Monitorable Targets. By-AJAY BHATTACHARYA, ADMINISTRATOR , USOF. Future Telecom Plan For Assam. Future Telecom Plan for Meghalaya. Future Telecom Plan For Mizoram.
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Presentation on NER VISION 2020FOR TELECOMBefore 59th NEC Plenary, 28.9.2010 State wise Future Plan with Monitorable Targets By-AJAY BHATTACHARYA, ADMINISTRATOR , USOF
Ongoing USO Fund Activities Provision of VPTs in uncovered villages • VPT is the first public telephone installed in a village provided on any technology • For the VPTs existing as on March 2003, only the OPEX and Revenue has been taken into account for determining the Net Cost • Subsidy support for installation of VPTs in the Remaining Uncovered Villages being provided under two Schemes • Bharat Nirman • Covering villages with Population more than 100 but excluding Villages affected with Naxalite problem • New VPTs • Covering all left out inhabited villages irrespective of Population or Naxalite criteria
Out of the total 40377 inhabited villages in North Eastern Region, 34477 villages have been provided with Village Public Telephones (VPTs) as on 31.07.2010. • This includes the VPTs provided under Bharat Nirman Program and New VPT Agreements signed with BSNL to provide VPTs in all the remaining uncovered inhabited villages as per Census 2001.
First phase of Shared Mobile Infrastructure Scheme : • A scheme has been launched by USO Fund to provide subsidy support for setting up and managing infrastructure sites (towers) spread over various districts of the country including North Eastern states for provision of mobile services in the specified rural and remote areas, where there is no existing fixed wireless or mobile coverage. • The infrastructure so created shall be shared by three service providers for provision of mobile services. • Villages/clusters of villages with more than 2000 population are being covered • As on 31.07.2010, 459 towers have been set up in NE Region. Mobile services through these shared towers are also being made operational in a phased manner. The remaining towers are likely to be set up by Nov’2010 in case the strike of Transport Operators specifically in Manipur is called of timely.
Wire line Broadband Connectivity for Rural areas • USO Fund has launched a scheme on 20.01.2009 to provide wire-line broadband connectivity to rural & remote areas by leveraging the existing rural exchanges infrastructure and copper wire-line network. • The objective is to make the rural and remote areas broadband enabled by facilitating the service providers for creating Broadband infrastructure. • The speed of each of the broadband connections shall be at least 512 Kbps Always On, with the capability to deliver data, voice and video services in the fixed mode. • The rural broadband connectivity will cover institutional users, such as Common Service Centers (CSCs), being set up by DIT, Gram Panchayats, Higher Secondary Schools and Public Health Centres, as well as Individual Users located in the villages.
BSNL • BSNL Organization in NE Region consists of • Assam Telecom Circle: NE-I Circle comprising of state of Meghalaya, Mizoram & Tripura NE-II Circle comprising of state of Nagaland, Manipur & Arunachal Pradesh • Sikkim which is part of West Bengal Telecom Circle • Project Circle: North East Task Force (NETF); • Maintenance Unit for Long Distance Network: Eastern Telecom Region (ETR)
BSNL’s Targets and Achievements in NE Region for Last 3 Years
Various issues affecting Telecom development in NE Region“ENTRY TAX ISSUE” • Assam State Govt. levying Entry Tax @ 4% for all Telecom & IT goods entering Assam for use in Assam, although no Telecom and IT related equipment is manufactured in the State • Authorities also demanding Certificates for goods entering Assam destined for the other 6 States of the NE region that “these goods would not be unloaded and used in Assam” • Problem faced by BSNL while sending telecom parts for repair out of the State of Assam, the Entry Tax Authority have to be chased to issue Certificates that the Entry Tax for the element in question has already been paid • Recommendation : There should be at least a 5-year Entry Tax holiday for Telecom & IT related goods entering Assam. This is essential for the development of the State’s Telecom & IT infrastructure.
Various issues affecting Telecom development in NE Region“RIGHT OF WAY PERMISSION FOR OFC LAYING” • For any cable / OFC laying, Right of Way (ROW) permission is required from the concerned Civic Authority (Municipality, Panchayat etc.). • Thus, a cable laying project spanning across several Civic areas require issue of multiple ROW permissions. If for any section, the permission is not granted for any section, the whole project collapses. Every Authority has its own procedures & tariff structure. • Recommendation : The present system of getting right of way a permission should be abolished throughout the Country (in some developed States it is already done), as better Telecom is essential for the all-round development of the State’s economy including opening up of employment generation opportunity.
Various issues affecting Telecom development in NE Region“NON COMPENSATION FOR CABLE / OFC CUTS” • Due to infrastructure development activities on the roads (including Road widening), the Telecom cables & OFC are being frequently cut • Agencies such as – NHAI, State PWD & the State PHE Departments, do not pay any compensation, which causes tremendous loss to Telecom operators. • This trend has only increased with usage of heavy earth moving machinery • Recommendation : The Agency / Department undertaking works on the road must pay compensation equal to the capital cost of the cable / OFC already existing along the stretch of road which would be subjected to the road works activities (lesser than 1% of Project Cost)
Various issues affecting Telecom development in NE Region“PENALTY FOR RUNNING DG SET” • Assam State Govt. Tax Commissioner has recently issued notice for collection of electricity duty for the electricity generated by the running of the DG sets quoting provision in the Assam Electricity Act, 1964, which stipulates penalty of Rs 0.10Paisa/unit penalty if Power taken from any source other than State Electricity Board • Already the Government Departments as well as Railways stand exempted in Assam • BSNL yet not exempted • Recommendation :For all services covered under the ESMA Act, the Electricity duty payment on a/c of electricity generated by running DG sets, should be exempted.
Other Reasons affecting Telecom development in NE Region • In Meghalaya some sites are located on Bangladesh Border and this limits the progress of work at these sites. • In Mizoram because of difficult terrain and huge distances (on average 2 to 5 Km with head loading of tower parts) have greatly hampered the progress. • Insurgency and poor law & order situation in the NE states of Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur and Nagaland. Also, the terrains of these states are very difficult. • In hilly areas, connecting of some sites to GSM core network is also very difficult task and needs extra efforts as well as extra time frame. Some sites planned to connect through VSAT but presently due to satellite bandwidth crunch, sites could not be commissioned. • The sites are in most remote areas of rural India, mostly not connected by roads, public transport. Some sites are remotest part of country where even the roads are not properly connected and even due to slightest of rains the material is not able to reach to the site.
Other Reasons affecting Telecom development in NE Region.. • Many of the areas are disturbed, forest areas, hilly terrain, snow bound with no transport etc. • Active monsoon in NE region also delayed the work. • Revenue records of the land in many of the villages are incomplete and inconsistent resulting in delay in acquiring of land and signing of lease deeds. • Some of the sites are falling in forest land/ tribal land as a result, land acquisition pace was slow.
