Telecom regulator TRAI suggest that the Department of Telecommunications should approach the defence ministry for accessing part of its optical fibre network or suitable bandwidth to extend telecom coverage in the far areas of Himachal Pradesh.
The regulator recommend that in four districts, Lahaul and Spiti, Mandi, Kullu and Chamba, the villages that are yet to be connect under BharatNet Project should be immediately connect on VSAT media that can be surrender as soon as the optical fibre cable (OFC) backhaul is made available.
All these districts have 181 uncover villages, of which 14 are plan to be cover under the ‘354 villages scheme’ and 142 are to be cover under ‘Saturation of 4G Mobile’ scheme of USOF.
India to Be First Country to Auction Spectrum for Satellite Communication, TRAI Chairman Says
— 2YoDoINDIA News Network (@2yodoindia) December 13, 2022
For more news visit https://t.co/98KV4yIZka#2YoDoINDIA #TRAI #DepartmentOfTelecommunication #DoT #SatelliteCommunication pic.twitter.com/74pPftRg82
These schemes still leave out 25 villages from telecom coverage.
The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) in its recommendations on “improving telecom connectivity and infrastructure in far-flung areas of Himachal Pradesh” suggest that the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) should take up with the Ministry of Defence (MoD) for allocation of one or two pairs of OFC on NFS network for extending telecom coverage (including broadband services) to the villages located in far or border areas in the state under BharatNet project.
Trai said :
“In case the same is not feasible, MoD may be approach to allocate suitable bandwidth on its existing functional OFC to extend the telecom coverage to such villages,”.
Under Project Kranti, also known as Network For Spectrum (NFS), a nationwide OFC network is being implement by BSNL, wherein almost 60,000 kilometres of OFC is being roll out for exclusive use by defence forces in lieu of 65MHz spectrum surrender by the defence for auction by the DoT.
The regulator said that it is already in receipt of a reference on enabling ICR for remote and hilly regions frequently prone to natural disaster-base emergency situations and it will come up with separate recommendations in this regard after due consultations.
TRAI has recommend that capital expenditure (Capex) and operating expenditure (Opex) require for providing telecom infrastructure and connectivity to the 25 uncover villages (falling under the three revenue districts of Lahaul and Spiti, Kullu and Chamba) should be fund by the government through Universal Services Obligation Fund (USOF).
Trai said :
“The authority recommends that DoT may take up the case with the state government of HP for not levying any RoW (right of way) charges to telecom service providers and IP-Is for connecting remote and hilly areas in the state including all locations in four districts,”.
The regulator has suggest that the DoT should take up with the state government, NHAI and BRO, that in all road construction, road widening or other works should be done with prior coordination with telecom operators, and the liability of contractor for making payments for damages to telecom networks should be include ab-initio in the contracts.
Trai said :
“DoT should also take up with the state government of HP to explore the possibility of constructing utility ducts in all future road widening and new road construction projects. This will help in quick roll-out of all utility infrastructure, including telecom, in the state,”.
The regulator has suggest that the DoT should take up with the Himachal government to consider providing electricity to telecom sites within 15 days of connections request at utility or industrial tariff and consider waiving off last mile installation charges for extending electric connection to telecom sites in remote and hilly areas.
