Universal Services Obligation Fund

Definition of Universal Service Obligation

As per the Indian Telegraph Act 1885 (as amended in 2003 and 2006) Universal Service Obligation is defined as access to telegraph service to people in rural and remote areas at affordable and reasonable prices The New Telecom Policy - 1999 (NTP’99) provided that the resources for meeting the Universal Service Obligation (USO) would be raised through a ‘Universal Access Levy (UAL)’, which would be a percentage of the revenue earned by the operators under various licenses. The Universal Service Support Policy came into effected from 01.04.2002. The Indian Telegraph (Amendment) Act, 2003 giving statutory status to the Universal Service Obligation Fund (USOF) was passed by both Houses of Parliament in December 2003. The Rules for administration of the Fund known as Indian Telegraph (Amendment) Rules, 2004 were notified on 26.03.2004. As per the Indian Telegraph Act 1885 (as amended in 2003, 2006 and 2008), the Fund is to be utilized exclusively for meeting the Universal Service Obligation. All villages in India will get Broadband services within next two years, the funds coming from USOF