It is more than a year since the auctions got over but there is still no clarity on the roll out obligation for 3G and broadband operators. Both the operators and the Department of Telecom are grappling with the question as to what exactly is the roll out obligation for rural areas specified under the auction rules.

The guidelines issued before the auction states that operators are required to ensure that at least 50 per cent of the district headquarters (DHQ) using 3G spectrum out of which at least 15 per cent of the DHQs should be rural short distance changing area (SDCA) within 5 years. Rural SDCA is defined as an area where 50 per cent of the population lives in rural areas.

In the case of broadband, operators are required to cover at least 50 per cent of the rural SDCAs within 5 years.

However, the key problem is that there is no list of such rural SDCAs with the DoT. This came to light when Vodafone recently wrote to the department seeking a list of rural SDCAs which they are supposed to cover as part of the roll out obligation. But neither the licensing wing nor the Universal Services Obligation fund administrator has a list.

DoT has proposed to set up a committee to work out a list based on the census. The Telecom Enforcement, Resource Monitoring wing of the DoT had earlier tried to collate the data for Haryana based on percent of rural population in a particular SDCA. However, the list prepared by the TERM cell had classified towns like Gurgaon and Panchkula as rural. “Clarity on this issue is important because later on DoT could penalise us for not covering a specific area. If we have the list of areas that have to be covered then there is no ambiguity,” said an operator.

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