DoT has invited proposals from all telecom operators and stand-alone tower companies to set up 11,000 mobile towers across the country. The project is estimated to cost between Rs 30 and Rs 40 billion and will be financed by the government from the Universal Service Obligation (USO) Fund. While DoT had adopted a bidding process for the first phase of rural tower rollout, the government is yet to decide if the same process will be adopted for the second phase too.