ISLAMABAD, June 2: The telecommunications ministry has objected to the 'violation' of the mobile cellular policy under which the entire proceeds of the bidding for the issuance of two new mobile licences have been forwarded by the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) to the federal government instead of depositing the amount in a Universal Service Fund (USF), an official source told Dawn.

The mobile cellular policy, which was announced by Minister for Information Technology Awais Ahmed Khan Leghari, contained an obligation under which the amount collected by the PTA from telecommunication licences had to be deposited in the USF.

The USF policy framework has to be prepared by the PTA under the mobile cellular policy to be approved by the federal government. An independent telecommunication expert also confirmed to Dawn that the PTA was bound to deposit the entire amount in the universal fund.

The PTA had issued two mobile cellular phone licences for $582 million ($291 million each) in an open bidding on April 14, 2004. These licences were given to Norway's Telenor Mobile Communications and UAE-based Warid Telecommunications while both the companies had already paid 50 per cent, or $145 million each, of fees for licences issued to them.

The wisdom behind creating the USF is to accelerate the availability of telecommunication services in the rural areas, the source said. "The importance of funding telecommunication infrastructure in the rural areas cannot be underestimated for the long-term economic benefit and to bridge the 'digital divide' between rural and urban areas," the clause 8 of the policy said.

Under the policy, the USF would be financed by the revenues collected from all telecommunication licencees through a universal service fund charge. The policy also asked to make public the amount and usage of USF which should also be subject to independent audit, while the disbursement of the USF funds would be made through a transparent, non-discriminatory and competitive process.

The source claimed that the senior officials in the Ministry of Information Technology and Telecommunication were perturbed over the fact as to how the entire proceedings of $291 million were forwarded to the federal government when it should be deposited in the USF.