Telcos no longer need to keep USOF in loop on rural penetration-related activities: Trai

The sector regulator has withdrawn an earlier directive that mandated phone companies to apprise the Universal Services Obligation Fund (USOF) administrator every month on activities undertaken to boost rural telecom penetration.

The USOF is an independent body within the telecom department (DoT) that subsidises telecom infrastructure rollouts in rural India.

All telcos, including state-owned Bharat Sanchar Nigam, till date had to keep the USOF in the loop on their monthly activities towards rolling out village public telephones (VPTs), rural direct exchange lines (RDELs), rural community phones (RCPs), and even highlight the same on their respective websites.


Trai’s decision comes after a panel -- formed to spot infructuous/redundant regulations -- said the Trai direction was no longer required. The panel comprised Trai officials and telco representatives.

Similarly, Trai, at the instance of the panel, has also retracted another earlier direction that mandated telcos to furnish a compliance certificate to the sector regulator every year about delivery of auto-roaming services to prepaid users and inclusion of standard terms/conditions in all prepaid cards.