Railtel approches govt for its share in USO fund

New Delhi, Oct 5 (UNI) RailTel, the fledgling telecommunication company of the Railways, has approached the Central Government for its share in the Universal Service Obligation (USO) fund on the basis of its plans to launch telecommunication services in remote areas of the country.

The six-year-old company has an existing network of about 30,000 km fibre cable network alongside railway tracks, which will be expanded to 36,000 km within a year or two.

''We are already operating in remote areas of the country and plan to expand our operations beyond the periphery of railway stations,'' Rail Tel Managing Director K K Bajpayee told reporters here today.

Out of 7,000 stations, around 4500 stations are located in smaller towns and rural areas, where tele-density is less than one per hundred population.

''In order to penetrate our operations in small towns and rural areas, we will require major investments. That is why we have approached the Centre for a share in the USO fund,'' he said.

Mr Bajpayee, however, did not specify the expected amount from the fund, which has been created from a statutory levy on private telecom operators.

RailTel will use wireless technology to provide the Last Mile connectivity as the optic fibre lines are very costly.

''We are also in talks with BSNL for providing mobile telephony alongside railway tracks, which are not yet covered with WLL or GSM networks,'' he said.

Pointing out that laying of optic fibre cable network was a costly proposition, he said RailTel had decided to adopt Wi-Fi technology.

''We will take the radio frequency route and have appointed franchisees in several locations.'' UNI/SKS RA VC1700