BSNL's first rural kiosk, or Common Service Centersevice centre as it is called, is finally operational at the Savlaj village in Sangli, Maharashtra. Set up under the e-governance scheme ‘Wire-Line Broadband Connectivity to Rural & Remote Areas’, the kiosk is the first of 1 lakh facilities initially planned by the telco in 2005. BSNL had first announced that it would set up the kiosks to cover 48 per cent of rural population by 2007. Last year,BSNL has since revised its target. According to the most recent press release issued by the government, the number is down to 30,000 rural broadband kiosks, which will be set up in the next three years. These plans to set up kiosks keep getting pushed back, consistently. Funds The Universal Service Obligations fund set up by the DoT has granted a subsidy to BSNL for setting up the kiosk and also offers quarterly subsidy of Rs 20,000 for a period of 3 years for operating them. Meanwhile, private firm SREI Sahaj has partnered with Punjab National Bank to set up 24780 Internet kiosks, with an investment of Rs 10 billion. We had reported that Sahaj expects the kiosks to be operational by the end of this fiscal year. Networking Villages BSNL plans to install an ADSL2+ network with speeds of 2 Mbps that will connect the kiosks, enabling triple play services. The press release said the kiosk will offer triple play services - will this be BSNL's IPTV service? People can also use the kiosks for utility bill…
