With the support from Universal Services Obligation Fund (USOF), the government-run telecom company Bharat Sanchar Nigam (BSNL) is be tasked with expediting mass solarisation of its cell towers in India’s power-strapped rural zones.
A committee of a telecom department (DoT) has recommended this measure for the BSNL. The proposal is seen as the first step by the government to address the telecom sector’s concerns about the prohibitive capex costs of deploying green energy technologies like solar for powering cell towers in line with the DoT’s green telecom policy unveiled in January 2012.
The DoT panel has recommended that USOF money be used for solarisation of towers in rural areas that suffer from acute power shortage, adding that the mandate be given to BSNL due to its expertise in managing vast telecom infrastructure in rural areas.