Universal Service Fund Committee Approves Rs. 9.5 Billion Budget for FY 2019-20 - Android

The Universal Service Fund (USF) Policy Committee has approved an annual budget of Rs. 9.517 billion for the fiscal year… Read More

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The Universal Service Fund (USF) Policy Committee has approved an annual budget of Rs. 9.517 billion for the fiscal year 2019-20.

Federal Minister for Information Technology and Telecommunication Dr. Khalid Maqbool Siddiqui chaired the 37th meeting of USF Policy Committee today.

The meeting also approved the minutes of the 36th USF Policy Committee meeting. The Committee discussed different aspects of the fund and approved USF’s annual budget of Rs 9.517 billion for the fiscal year 2019-20.

The meeting also discussed the Broadband for Sustainable Development program. Senior officers of the Ministry of IT were also present at the meeting.

USF has spent around Rs. 56.013 billion to date, but some of the un-served and under-served areas in Balochistan, as well as South Waziristan and Kurram districts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, still lack access to basic telephony and mobile broadband services.

Why USF Was Formed

USF was created in 2007 to stretch cellular, broadband internet, fiber optics and other telecommunication services to un-served or underserved areas. All telecom companies have been contributing 1.5 percent of their revenues to the fund.

Officials revealed that the USF has over Rs. 32 billion in balance and spent Rs. 56.013 billion during the last ten years for the expansion of telecommunication services to the under-served and un-served areas of the country.

Unserved/Underserved Areas

USF officials maintained that despite massive growth there were many areas that remained underserved. The challenges, they asserted, that the USF faces are rugged terrains, sparse population, harsh weather, lack of electricity, no backhaul, and poor logistics as well as security clearance. Some of these areas include South Waziristan, North Waziristan, Orakzai, Kurram Jhal Magsi, Dera Bugti, Nasirabad and Jaffarabad.

According to the sources, for the areas that do not support business plans of telecom operators, the government subsidizes projects for them to reach the under-served and un-served regions.

According to documents, out of a total of Rs 56.013 billion subsidies, Ufone took a major chunk of the subsidy i.e. Rs. 17.12 billion (30.5 percent), PTCL –Rs. 14.66 billion (26 percent), Telenor–Rs. 12.787 billion (22.8 percent), Zong–Rs. 4.55 billion (8.1 percent), Wateen–Rs. 3.717 (6.6 percent), World Call–Rs. 1.134 billion (2 percent) and Mobilink–Rs. 382.145 million (0.68 percent).

Telecommunication coverage was around 44 percent before USF launched in 2006-07 which reached around 75 percent during the last ten years while covering 6,225 mauzas.

Broadband Program

An official said that “Broadband for Sustainable Development” program is designed to provide telecom services to the un-served mauzas across the country. After the issuance of 3G/4G licenses by the federal government, this program has been redesigned to include the broadband equivalent data (internet) services as a compulsory component.

For new projects, solarizing telecommunication sites was also made a part of each project. According to documents, 1159 BTS have been installed and 7116 mauzas have been covered.

Optic Fiber Program

Optic fiber program is another initiative under the USF, which aims to promote the development of telecommunication services in un-served and under-served rural areas to enable affordable voice, telephony, and basic data services. This also requires the establishment of a stable and reliable optic fiber network in all corners of the country.

This project aims to extend optic fiber connectivity to the un-served tehsil headquarters for meeting the growing requirements of voice, data, and video in these areas.

Extending fiber cables to tehsils will help the telecom service providers in extending all kinds of telecom services to those areas. Under this program, 6,447 km optic fiber has been laid while 56 tehsils and 26 towns have been connected.

Under special projects, several initiatives have been started including ICT education for girls, the establishment of 13 computer labs in selected institutions, enabling persons with disabilities to use telecom services, telemedicine network & services, the establishment of telecenters, and empowerment of craft SMEs through e-commerce.

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