NEW DELHI : The Lok Sabha on Friday passed The Indian Telegraph (Amendment) Bill, 2006 that will give subsidy to cellular mobile service providers for setting up infrastructure in rural and remote areas. At present, subsidy from the Universal Service Obligation (USO) Fund is provided to wire-line and fixed wireless terminals.

Replying to a debate on the Bill, Communications and Information Technology Minister Dayanidhi Maran said the amendment was to replicate in rural India the success of telecom in urban areas.

``At the rate at which we are growing, we should be achieving a target of 50 crore subscribers by 2010,'' the Minister said. Mobile phones were available in 90 to 95 per cent areas on demand and this was the reason for taking them to rural and remote areas.

``In November we added 68 lakh new mobile phones and we want to ensure that these telephones do not remain the property of only the urban rich. While the teledensity in urban areas is 48 per cent, it is extremely low in rural areas.''

To increase the teledensity in rural areas, Mr. Maran said, the USO Fund facility had to be extended to all operators where private as well as public sector undertakings such as Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL) and Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd. (MTNL) would compete.

He said 16,000 towers would be put up in rural areas. Soon the entire length and breadth of the country would be covered through mobile networking.

The subsidy, to be given on tower cost, would be for five years and there were a number of players such as BSNL, Tatas, Reliance and Airtel to take advantage of the USO Fund to roll out networks there. About 66,000 villages remained uncovered in 2004. Of them, 17,000 have been covered and the rest would be cleared by 2007.

Earlier, the House took up the Statutory Resolution of nine members, opposing The Indian Telegraph (Amendment) Ordinance 2006. Moving the resolution, Prabodh Panda (CPI) said he was against the Government bringing in an ordinance. Varkala Radhakrishnan (CPI-Marxist) and Suresh Prabhu (Shiv Sena) also questioned the need for an ordinance when the Bill had been introduced.

Mr. Maran said since the Bill — introduced in May — could not be passed, the ordinance route was adopted to avoid delay in the scheme.

M.A.K. Swain (BJP) asked the Minister to specify when the waiting list would be wiped out. B. Mehtab (Biju Janata Dal) said the Government should not to divert money from the USO Fund to mobile operators and a fixed portion of the Fund must be earmarked for landline services.

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