Wednesday, July 31, 2013: Around 10 years ago, a fund was created in order to link 638,596 villages in India with telecom and broadband connectivity. Contributions from private service providers to the fund was made mandatory. But, the fund with a whopping $4.65 billion seems to be idling. According to the official data, Rs 27,949.91 crore ($4.65 billion) is still unused.
The Parliament approved the scheme in 2002-03. And, until now around $8.4 billion (Rs 50,682.95 crore) has been collected towards Universal Service Obligation Fund.
Experts and stakeholders have questioned the reasons for continuing with the fund that is acting as a financial burden on the telecom operators. The people who have been entrusted with the fund are of the opinion that it is just a matter of time before the desired results starts showing its face.
“This fund is equivalent to 0.25 percent of India’s gross domestic product and remains unallocated and is highly inefficient,” said Gabriel Solomon, the Public Policy Head of Groupe Special Mobile Association (GSMA), the global association for mobile companies, reported Tech2.
According to Solomon, the basic reason behind the fund remaining unused in most countries is that telecom industry is highly competitive and so it is difficult for these funds to move at the same space as the telecom industry.
Electronics Bazaar, South Asia’s No.1 Electronics B2B magazine
