Trai in favour of free limited data to rural area subscribers

New Delhi : In a bid to promote cashless transactions in India, Trai on Monday recommended reasonable amount of free data services to the rural area subscribers on monthly basis. It also suggested that funds required to make this scheme successful can be used from the Universal Service Obligation Fund.

"In order to bridge the affordability gap for the persons residing in rural areas and to support government's efforts towards cashless economy by incentivising digital means, the Authority recommends that a scheme under which a reasonable amount of data say 100 MB per month may be made available to rural subscribers for free," Trai said.

Trai suggested arrangements of funds via Universal Service Obligation Fund (USOF), under which the government charges a cess, Universal Access Levy, from telecom licencees to fund setting up of telecom infrastructure in all uncovered rural and remote areas of the country.

Trai believes, India can move fastly towards cashless economy with this scheme.