USO

Universal Service Obligation Fund (USOF)

USO: Universal Service Obligation is an obligation of the Govt. to provide access to basic telecommunication service to people in rural and remote areas at affordable and reasonable price. It was felt that subsidizing only fixed services is not sufficient to increase the teledensity in rural  areas, hence it was decided to provide subsidy for Mobile, Broadband service.

‘Basic’ is prescribed differently by various regulators in the world. In India it is basically availability of access to voice communication.

USOF:  Universal Service Obligation Fund is a non lapsable fund. The fund is to be utilized exclusively for meeting the universal service obligation. Transfers from Consolidated Fund to USOF through Parliamentary approvals.

www.usof.gov.in> Activities>Silent features of  Schemes> Closed Schemes  Ongoing Schemes.

USOF Section (On-going USOF schemes in Jharkhand Circle, Ranchi)

Sl.No.	Name of Scheme	Agreement Date	Valid Upto	USP	No. of sites
01.	Operation and Maintenance first Line Maintenance of BharatNet Phase-I Network	29.08.2022	30.06.2024	M/s BSNL	OLTs – 134 GPs - 2849
02.	Provision of 4G Based Mobile Services at MHA at MHA Identified Tower Locations in Left Wing Extremism (LWE Phase-II) affected areas in the state.	01.10.2021	36 Months Rollout + Ten Years	M/s BAL	82
03.	Provision of 4G Based Mobile Services in identified uncovered villages in Aspirational districts in the states of Jharkhand & Maharashtra.	20.05.2022	30 Months Rollout + Ten Years	M/s BAL	327
04.	Saturation 4G Mobile Coverage of Uncovered Villages	06.02.2023	Six years + 135 days	M/s BSNL	760

 

CLOSED USOF SCHEMES

Sl.No.	Name of Scheme	Agreement Date	Valid Upto	USP	No. of sites
01.	Setting up 25000 Wi-Fi Hotspot at rural Telephone Exchanges	09.06.2017	31.12.2022	M/s BSNL	183
02.	LWE Phase-I	30.09.2014	31.10.2023	M/s BSNL	816