Target for rural telephony to be achieved much earlier: Raja

New Delhi, Dec 29 (UNI) The government stated that the target for one phone per two rural households by 2010 will be achieved earlier than the set date.

''The target of one phone per three rural households in 2007 has already been achieved and are hopeful of achieving one phone per two rural households much earlier than the targeted date of 2010,'' Communication and Information Technology Minister A Raja said at a meeting here yesterday.

The government plans to introduce a scheme for supporting shared infrastructure to take mobile telephony into the rural areas, the Minister added.

Mr Raja said a scheme has recently been launched by Universal Services Obligation (USO) Fund to erect 7,871 towers in 500 districts across the country for providing mobile services in the rural areas.

About 27 crore population residing in 2,00,000 villages will be covered under the scheme.

There are about 6.12 crore rural telephones working with the rural teledensity of 7.61, Mr Raja said.

UNI