USO

The office is administering diferrent USOF Schemes including BharatNet and Wifi Hotspot Schemes like Railway Station, Rural Exchanges etc.

Scheme for laying of Optical Fiber Cable

The States of Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur & Nagaland were taken up for OFC augmentation in this scheme. An Agreement was signed with M/s RailTel Corporation of India Limited on 16.01.2012 for implementation of this scheme. Total 407 nodes (Blocks/ important towns) are to be commissioned in 36 Districts for which subsidy of Rs. 298.50 Crore is to be provided by USO Fund to M/s RailTel.

As per the request received from RailTel owing to the difficulties faced in North Eastern states, the rollout period has been extended to 54 months from the date of signing of the Agreement i.e. by 15.07.2016 for the states of Manipur and Nagaland and 60 months from the date of signing of the Agreement i.e. by 15.01.2017 for the state of Arunachal Pradesh.

Bharatnet

BharatNet earlier known as NOFN is planned to connect all the 2,50,000 Gram Panchayats in the country for providing broadband connectivity in the Gram Panchayats. Non-discriminatory access to the network will be provided to all the telecom service providers. These access providers like mobile operators, Internet Service Providers (ISPs), Cable TV operators, content providers can launch various services in rural areas. Various applications for e-health, e-education, e-governance etc. will be provided. The project is being executed by a Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) namely Bharat Broadband Network Limited (BBNL), which has been incorporated on 25.02.2012 under Indian Companies Act 1956.

25000 Wi-Fi Hotspot at Rural Telephone Exchanges

The objective of the scheme is to set up 25,000 public Wi-fi hotspots at rural telephone exchanges of BSNL. USP shall provide broadband internet access over Wi-Fi leveraging BSNL backhaul. The target end-user devices would be smartphones, tablets, etc. USOF shall provide financial support as per the Financial Conditions of the Agreement. The infrastructure created under this project shall be owned by BSNL.

The Rollout period for setting up 25000 Wi-Fi Hotspots shall be six months from the date of signing of the Agreement.

The Agreement shall be valid for a period of 42 months from the effective date unless revoked earlier for reasons as specified elsewhere in the document.

Wi-Fi Hotspot at 200 Rural Railway Stations

The Universal Service Provider (USP) i.e M/s RailTel Corporation of India Limited shall be bounded by the terms and conditions of the Agreement or any other instructions issued from time-to-time by the Administrator. The USP shall always be liable to perform the obligations under this Agreement for Provision of specified Services in Identified areas for which the Agreement has been entered into during the validity period of the Agreement.

The Rollout period for setting up 200 Wi-Fi Hotspots shall be six months from the date of signing of the Agreement dated 18-09-2017.

The Agreement shall be valid for a period of three years (36 Months) from the effective date unless revoked earlier for reasons as specified elsewhere in the document. Only site in this circle is Naharlagun (Arunachal Pradesh).

Provision of 4G based Mobile Services in Identified uncovered villages in Arunachal Pradesh.

The objective of the scheme is to set up 4G based Mobile services in identified uncovered villages of Arunachal Pradesh. The USP Shall set up (i.e. supply, Install, Test and Commission), operate, maintain and manage the respective infrastructure sites required for effective provision of 4G based Mobile services in Identified uncovered villages in Arunachal Pradesh. The USOF shall provide financial support as per the financial condition of the Agreement.

The rollout period for setting up 4G based Mobile services is 18 months from the date of signing of the agreement i.e. 29.10.2021. The agreement shall be valid for 10(ten) years.