In a country where more people have access to a cellphone than a toilet, the government has come up with a plan: give away cellphones. The program to provide 25 million people living in rural India with a pay-as-you-talk phone was announced in Parliament by Milind Deora, the junior telecoms minister. As part of the national plan, which hasn’t received the nod from Cabinet, India will give away cellphones to at least one person in every eligible rural household. Those eligible recipient will have to make an unspecified contribution towards the cost of the phone  and will then get a 30 rupee (39 cents) recharge each month on a pay-as-you-talk basis for two years. The total cost to the government for the handout will be about 48.50 billion rupees ($792 million) & that free cellphones program would be implemented in stages over five years. The plan has been approved by the Telecom Commission, the highest decision-making body within the telecoms department, and will be financed through the Universal Service Obligation, or USO, fund. This fund was created by the telecom department to give grants for connecting rural areas and also for non-commercial telecom networks.

(Wall Street Journal)