Highlights:
• Government of India given project to provide 4G services in uncovered villages
• Project is given to Bharti Airtel and Reliance Jio
• Govt. aim to provide 4G network services to 7,287 uncovered villages
• The Universal Service Obligation Fund will be leveraged for funding the project
The Government of India has given Bharti Airtel and Reliance Jio a project to roll out 4G services in the rural or uncovered villages of the country. Airtel is the second-largest telecom operator in India who will be installing 1,083 mobile towers with an estimated expenditure of Rs 847.95 crore in Maharashtra and Jharkhand while Reliance Jio will install 3,696 mobile towers for Rs 2,836 crore.
The Government of India had awarded the project to the telcos in May 2022.
Jio and Airtel Have 18 Months to Complete the Project
It has been told that both the telcos had been given 18 months by the government to complete the project. Last year in 2021, the Cabinet approved the project for providing 4G services in uncovered villages of the aspirational districts of five states. This project allotted to Jio and Airtel is in line with that only.
Aim of providing 4G network to 7,287 uncovered villages across 5 states
Under this project, the government aims to bring 4G network services to 7,287 uncovered villages of 44 aspirational districts across five states, including Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Odisha, Maharashtra, and
Andhra Pradesh. The estimated cost for this project is Rs 6,466 crore, spread over the span of five years.
The Universal Service Obligation Fund (USOF) will be leveraged to fund the project, which is likely to be completed by November 2023.
These projects will help Indian villages get connected to the internet and will also drive the income of private telcos up. Bharti Airtel and Reliance Jio have a lot of experience in setting up 4G networks in rural areas of the country.
More essential, the telcos have the necessary resources to finish the work as quickly as feasible. In the near future, the government may allocate more projects to telcos; Vodafone Idea (Vi) and Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) may be hoping to scrap some of the contracts for themselves.
