February 4, 2006	Saturday	Muharram 5, 1427

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ISLAMABAD, Feb 3: The multi-billion Universal Service Fund (USF), set up with the help of 1.5 per cent of total revenue contributed by the cellphone operators, would become operational by the end of March.

The fund was established to improve telecommunication in rural areas by financing infrastructure build-up and network coverage to unserved and undeserved areas which hitherto did not make business sense for the telecom companies to go there and set up their operations, said Information Technology Minister Awais Ahmad Khan Leghari said here on Friday.

He was speaking at a workshop organized by the Ministry of Information Technology as part of a consultative process to seek recommendations and share input with stakeholders ahead of formulating the policy framework for USF.

The workshop was attended by representatives of all major telecom operators who, in their presentations, lauded the USF initiative, calling it a welcome step towards extending the envelope of telecom revolution to the unserved areas.

Pakistan Telecommunication Authority Chairman Shahzada Alam, IT Secretary Farrakh Qayyum and other government officials also spoke on the occasion.

The IT minister said the government was keen to use USF to promote telecom service in areas where over 50 per cent villages were still deprived of the facility. The combined tele-density in Pakistan currently stood at over 17 per cent, but while the concentration of telecommunication in urban centres such as Lahore and Karachi was almost 25-30 per cent, it was between 1 and 2 per cent in rural areas which provided for an aggressive and efficient utilization of USF.

The scope of penetration in rural areas served as an eye- opener for many telecom operators who got a tremendous response from the rural population. The USF provides an opportunity to bridge the digital divide in rural areas where agriculture can get a real boost owing to telecommunication links, the minister said.

However, he assured the audience that the government would see to it that money generated through the USF was spent within the right framework.

Transparency issues are given much priority by the government which would involve all stakeholders, including the regulator, to be part of its management to ensure an across-the- board utilization of the fund, he said.

However, the government would not dole out the USF without discretion, and the telecom operators would have to meet their roll-out obligations before turning to the USF for help in areas required to be covered within the stipulated period, he said.

The minister said the government wanted to keep the USF policy framework as simple as possible which would also provide for infrastructure sharing besides encouraging national roaming within the areas covered by the USF.

“I am a strong believer in keeping the government out of any commercial agreement between the industry players,” he said, adding that forcing any kind of commercial relationship on the industry would not be in the interest of the government.

Mr Leghari also rejected demands from a section of the industry opposing infrastructure sharing, saying it would not be practical to subsidize more than one infrastructure build-up under the USF. The government has always followed consumer- operator-friendly policies, and reduction of activation tax from Rs2,000 to Rs500 amply demonstrated the support extended by the government to the sector which had also been declared an industry, resulting in further concessions in taxes.

Earlier, representatives of the industry hailed the setting up of the USF and put forward a host of recommendations for keeping the process of collection and disbursement of fund as simple and transparent as possible. They also called for making the fund available to only those who contributed to it through licence fees.

They also urged the government to focus on the provision of basic telephony and data services.