Universal Service Obligation Fund (USOF) of DoT signed agreements in 2004 with Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) and M/s Reliance Infocomm Ltd. (RIL) for provision of 21,958 and 18,736 Rural Community Phones (RCPs) respectively i.e. Provision of Second (2nd ) Public Telephone in 40,694 villages which have population of more than 2000 and do not have Public Call Office (PCO) facility. All of the 40694 RCPs have already been provided.
The Minister of State for Communications & Information Technology Shri Milind Deora informed Lok Sabha in a written reply yesterday that there is no plan for providing RCPs i.e. 2nd Public Telephone in each and every remote village and habitations in the rural areas of the country. However, it is planned to provide Village Public Telephone (VPT) facility i.e. at least one public telephone, in all the inhabited revenue villages of Census 2001 villages with the financial support from USOF. 5,80,556 villages (out of 5,93,601 villages) i.e. 97.8% of the Census 2001 inhabited revenue villages of the country had already been provided with Village Public Telephone (VPT) facility as on 31.03.2012.
The Minister of State for Communications & Information Technology Shri Milind Deora informed Lok Sabha in a written reply yesterday that there is no plan for providing RCPs i.e. 2nd Public Telephone in each and every remote village and habitations in the rural areas of the country. However, it is planned to provide Village Public Telephone (VPT) facility i.e. at least one public telephone, in all the inhabited revenue villages of Census 2001 villages with the financial support from USOF. 5,80,556 villages (out of 5,93,601 villages) i.e. 97.8% of the Census 2001 inhabited revenue villages of the country had already been provided with Village Public Telephone (VPT) facility as on 31.03.2012.
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