Telecom Roundup – BSNL Alliances Grow, USO Fund Still Swings Overhead
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The telecos found the Universal Service Obligation (USO) fund noncompetitive when the government of India proposed to allocate Rs 1,800 crore to BSNL in order to expand their activities. The Association of Unified Telecom Service Providers of India (AUSPI) and the Cellulars Operators Association of India (COAI) along with the CDMA and GSM operators fought back to avoid an anti-competitive effect on the entire telecom industry.
They then called for a transparent distribution of the USO fund among all the operators. To provide equal opportunities for all players, the confrontation involved utilisation of the corpus (Rs 1800 crore) for state-run BSNL by DoT to upgrade their already existing exchanges, to provide wireline broadband and to set up kiosks across the country.
Hence, amendment was done for the USO fund to be disbursed equally among all, Communications and IT minister, A Raja at the curtain raiser of the India Telecom 2009 proposed easy access to the Rs 16,000-crore with the center (Consolidated Fund of India). “It (amendment) is being done to remove the rigidity in USO Fund rules and make it more flexible,” said A Raja. However, the release of these unused funds remains rigid.
In a meeting with all the telecom operators A Raja discussed respective issues regarding the usage of the USO fund, believably to bring down the tariff rates and to increase rural mobile penetration. However, operators at the meeting were not satisfied with the outcome of the discussion and called it (meeting) a mere “confidence-building” move by the ministry. No specific agenda for the meeting raised clear indication among the operators that it was only meant to ensure a popular support from the telecos related to the distribution of the fund.
After the discussion Raja spoke to the press, “I requested the operators, the termination charge can come down by 2010 and accordingly tariffs can be reduced. I have also asked them to utilise optimally the USO fund to enhance telecom infrastructure in rural areas. Government is in process to simplify the rules for getting funds from the kitty. “
On the other hand, BSNL enters into another communion with Sistema Shyam Teleservices Ltd to share towers. Their earlier alliance on the similar agreement was with Aircel, Tata Teleservices and Datacom. Are these jitters before the distribution of the USO fund? Well, the dip in their revenues over the past couple of years might answer that question. Whereas the unfolded infrastructure would benefit other telecom service providers in faster roll out on pan-India basis, BSNL finds some additional modes to earn revenues.
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