USOF working on provisioning 4G based services in uncovered villages in Arunachal Pradesh and Assam

The Universal Service Obligation Fund (USOF) under the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) is working on provisioning 4G based mobile services in uncovered villages in Arunachal Pradesh and Assam. The body last month released a tender for the same that was initially supposed to be opened this month but postponed to next month. The tender is line with the Cabinet’s approval last year to provide mobile coverage in two districts of Assam namely Karbi Anglong and Dima Hasao and Arunachal Pradesh under the Comprehensive Telecom Development Plan (CTDP) for North Eastern Region (NER).

The project envisages setting up of 390 sites of Type-A infrastructure in 389 uncovered villages of Arunachal Pradesh and 590 sites of Type-B infrastructure in 1294 uncovered villages of Arunachal Pradesh. In total, 980 sites of Type-A and Type-B infrastructure will be set up in 1683 uncovered villages of Arunachal Pradesh under North East LSA.

In Assam, 365 sites of Type-A infrastructure will be set up in 365 uncovered villages of Karbi Anglong whereas 166 sites of Type-B infrastructure will be set up in 326 uncovered villages of Dima Hasao. In total, 531 sites of Type-A and Type-B infrastructure will be set up in 691 uncovered villages of two districts of Assam namely Karbi Anglong and Dima Hasao.

The project sanctioned last year at a cost of Rs 2,029 crore including operational expenses for five years will be funded by Universal Service Obligation Found (USOF) and targeted to be completed by December, 2022.

The ground based towers will be 30M height for A type eNode-B and 40M height for B Type e-Node B with 20W radiating power. The towers equipped with sectoral antenna for minimum 4 KM radial coverage will have 1+1+1 eNode-B configuration. The minimum backhaul bandwidth will be 8 Mbps of VSAT and 15 Mbps of OFC/MW. The tower will support voice, SMS, and data services.