Govt to formulate clusters of villages to penetrate rural mkts

New Delhi, Apr 17 (UNI) To tap the rural telecom market, the government is formulating a plan to form clusters of villages with one service sector.

A group of one lakh such clusters will be provided with broadband connectivity.

''The government is concerned about the digital divide, while the telecom market is booming, the rural density is very low. To make it accessible to rural population, the government will bring together clusters of villages with one service centre,'' a member of DoT claimed.

With a total telephone subscriber base of over 200 million (fixed plus mobile), India is one of the fastest growing telecom markets in the world.

The telecom penetration in rural areas is just 13 per cent.

He maintained that with 70 per cent of population in rural areas, it becomes very imperative for government to do something for rural India.

According to the vision plan drawn up by DoT, 200 million rural telephone connections are envisaged by the end of 2012, translating into a rural tele-density of 25 per cent.

The total number of rural households would be about 160 million, assuming five members per household, of which 130 million households would be above the poverty line.

Considering one telephone for every three households and one telephone for every two households by the year 2012, the number of rural telephones would be about 80 millions by conservative estimates.

There will be on an average 1.5 telephones for every rural household above the poverty line by the end of the Eleventh five-year plan. As a result, about 195 million rural telephone connections would be required by the year 2012.

UNI