Rural phone scheme in Karnataka

A total of nine million people living in over 10,000 villages in parts of Kodagu, Mandya, Tumkur, Hassan, Belgaum, Bagalkot, Bijapur, Kolar, Chickkaballapur, Udupi and Dakshina Kannada districts are covered under the Universal Service Obligation Fund (USOF) programme. Reliance Communications plans to provide 200,000 connections under the Gramada Phone scheme in the region by March 31 and will be taking the help of village panchayats to achieve this deadline stipulated by Department of Telecommunication. The Gramada phone is available with an offer of Rs 699 with two-year free incoming service. In order to make it attractive to first-time users of telephones, the call charges have been fixed at 80 paise for three minutes for local calls to fixed lines and to any Reliance phone in Karnataka. All calls made to other mobile service providers’ phones will be charged 80 paise per minute. According to R. Swaminathan, CEO – Karnataka and Andhra circles, the Rural Household Direct Exchange Lines (RDEL) programme is intended to empower those rural areas which lack even a single phone line with voice connectivity to enable them to take advantage of various economic opportunities. Gramada phone contains patch-panel-Antenna (PPA) that will be fixed at every household in these areas, which will help offer superior connectivity and voice clarity. To make this programme popular in the remote villages, the company is undertaking mass public announcements and demonstration campaigns, Swaminthan said. Source: Business Line

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