Government wants to provide free Internet-enabled phones to 25 million rural houses

The government has grand plans to ensure connectivity in India. According to a news report by The Hindu Business Line, the Government of India has unveiled its ambitious plan of linking 25 million rural households in the country with free Internet-enabled mobile connectivity.

With a one-time fee of Rs 300, the government will provide a phone and a connection by BSNL to those who sign up for the scheme. “Villagers will be given a smartphone. A free recharge of Rs 30 (Re 1 a day) will be provided by the service provider (BSNL) on the first day of every month for two years,” a senior government official has been quoted as saying.

Of course, it would be silly to expect huge amounts of usage facility with a scheme like this. Those who sign up for this scheme will be given 30 minutes of talktime, 30 SMSes and 30MB of data usage a month in addition to information broadcast about agriculture, healthcare, financial services, education and more.

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Here’s another catch for this scheme. The mobile phone will be provided to a woman within a household. Essentially this means, if there’s no woman in the household, it does not get a phone under this scheme. It seems to be a smart move on the government’s part to club connectivity with women’s rights in rural India.

Women to benefit from this scheme

Other rules of the scheme include the fact that the beneficiaries need to be enrolled in the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) scheme. A beneficiary who has availed herself of the scheme for a minimum of 25 days a year or is not below the State’s average will be eligible to receive a handset. The government, of course, will call the shots over who is selected under the scheme.

Only households with no phone connections otherwise will be selected for the scheme. “During MGNREGA enrolment, it is recorded whether the beneficiary has any phone connection or not. In this way, the scheme will increase tele-density,” the official said.

Besides spreading connectivity in rural parts of the country, this scheme is all set to benefit state service provider BSNL too. The company is said to be reeling under losses and will be able to take good advantage of the scheme. BSNL will receive Rs 5,000 crore over a period of three years for this programme. The report, however, will not require any additional budgetary allocation since the government will be cashing in funds for the same from the Universal Service Obligation fund that is a pool of cess levied of telecom companies to provide rural connectivity.