DoT has decided to offer financial support from
the USO Fund to telecom players using renewable sources of energy, to power
their base stations in rural areas. What is the status on the scheme?
We are in the process of rolling out the pilots. Our intention is that at
least one such site per state is taken up for this purpose. I believe it is on
target in the sense that the processing is expected to be done within two to
three months.
We are looking at setting up a 10 KW SPV panel in phase
one USO sites and in some states, wherever feasible, we may consider solar and
wind hybrid setup.
What amount from the fund has been set aside for these
projects?
Money is not the real issue here. What we are saying is that we will meet a
substantial part of the cost of deployment. We are in talks with the people, and
trying to find out what will be the actual amount that will be needed. We are
yet to arrive at a realistic figure. We all know that setting up a 10 KW solar
panel costs about Rs 30-35 lakh, accordingly, the subsidy will be slightly less
than that. I won't be able to say anything about the delivery schedules as it
will be decided when we award the project. Timely reviews will be done for any
other project.
Do you think it should be mandated that the operators
should adopt at least some green measures?
I don't think there can be any binding on operators to adopt green or
renewable energy sources. They will do so if they think it makes economic sense
for them. That is the way to go, and that is the way it has been happening. One
deterrent, most of the time, is the initial cost. If the capital cost is met or
supported to some extent then there is an incentive for people to go green. We
are not egging them to do that. We are making an effort to remove the basic
bottleneck, which is the high initial capital cost.
The DoT (USO fund) has taken up this green thing to solve
some of the constraints faced by operators. It is an issue of changing needs. We
are all aware that people keep on talking, but the actual rollout has not been
in the same spirit. These pilots have thus been conceived as there is a need to
know the gap between talk and the actual practice. These will help us find out
why operators are not rolling out green solutions in a big fashion.
As far as the idea of mandating is concerned, we are not
getting into it. We are not the Ministry of Environment & Forests or the
Ministry of New and Renewable Energy. Green is an omnibus term. Our focus is on
removing hurdles that deter the growth of telecom, especially in the rural
areas, which are mostly power-starved.
According to the latest data available, till now the
total fund collected as USL is Rs 26,163.96 crore. However, only Rs 9,606.97
crore has been disbursed. What is being done to pump the corpus lying with the
Center back into flow?
I do not agree with that. Accumulation or inflow of funds happen on a
continuous basis, but the spending is in spurts. By the time one scheme gets
over, the other may be still under consideration. These two things can never be
precisely matched. So, the entire amount cannot be spent in one go. We have
several schemes on the anvil that will take care of the problem largely.
Most of the operators allege that USO funds are inflexible, in turn,
non-competitive. The telecom minister also realizes the need to amend the rules.
As the administrator of the fund, what amendments would you recommend?
I would not like to comment on that because as far as the USO schemes under
the current laws are concerned, we try to get feedback from the industry and try
to incorporate their concerns. In every scheme, all the stakeholders are allowed
to participate. People always have a big wish list, and it is not always
possible to accommodate everybody's entire list.
Do you think there should be an obligation on rolling out 3G in the rural
areas?
We have been supporting wireline services. Whether there should be an
obligation on the 3G or not, will be decided by the licensing authorities.
Heena Jhingan
heenaj@cybermedia.co.in
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