The department of telecommunications has asked the state owned BSNL to start installation of public telephones in another 50,000 newly identified villages.

With this, all the villages in the country would be covered by public telephone service.

BSNL has already commenced work on this second phase of village public telephone (VPT) scheme. These 50,000 villages include new villages that were included in the 2001 census, villages with a population below 100 and those left out earlier.

VPTs will come up in such uncovered villages with subsidy support from DOT's universal service obligation (USO) fund. Installation of public telephones in all villages is expected to be completed by the end of the next year.

The government is already implementing a scheme to provide subsidised public telephone facility to 66,822 uncovered villages under the ambitious Bharat Nirman programme. Out of these, 54,700 villages have already been covered and the remaining are likely to be covered by the end of the current year.

All villages have been brought under the scheme except those with a population below 100, those lying in deep forests and those affected with insurgency.

About 5000 remotely located villages are being provided with VPT using satellite technology i.e. Digital Satellite Phone Terminals (DSPTs).

The state owned telecom operator, BSNL has provided telephones to five and half lakh villages across the country. It has extended 11 million GSM connections in the rural areas.

BSNL's GSM coverage has reached out to about 256000 villages, which means over 43 per cent of the total number of villages. Besides, it covers 75 per cent of the villages through its WLL network. The telecom giant has also brought 30,500 villages under the reach of broadband.