Poor telecom connectivity by private operators in rural, remote areas flagged at PAC meeting

New Delhi, Sep 2: Several MPs at a parliamentary meeting on Tuesday flagged the issue of poor telecom connectivity in rural and remote areas, especially by private operators, stating that public-run BSNL fares better in these regions despite lacking the advanced infrastructure of its private sector rivals, sources said.

Top officials from the Department of Telecommunications and service providers like Airtel, Jio and BSNL appeared before the Public Accounts Committee, headed by Congress MP K C Venugopal, as the panel grilled private operators.

Sources said the panel has asked for a report on different telecom service providers’ coverage and enhancement in infrastructure like new towers.

They said many MPs were of the view that private operators provide deficient services in rural, remote and border areas besides the northeast region. BSNL despite lacking the modern infra compared to its private counterparts does better, they added.

The PAC’s meeting agenda was to discuss a CAG audit report on “revenue sharing by telecom service providers with government.

After the meeting, Venugopal said, “We thoroughly discussed the issues related to common public grievances.”

Noting that the CAG had flagged the loss of revenue due to the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) in litigation, the committee asked it to submit a report on the details of its legal cases.

Sources said MPs also asked the department about the ongoing exercise to connect all village panchayats with optical fibre network and were told thay its third phase is currently on.

The committee asked the department to share the details of goals attained in the first two phases, sources said.