The budget has allocated Rs 15 billion for rural telephony from the Universal Service Obligation (USO) Fund. This has come as a disappointment to the sector since the estimated unutilised amount in this fund is over Rs 70 billion. The industry had expected a much higher allocation following the recent landmark deal between the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) and operators, whereby they would be funded from the USO Fund through a bidding process for setting up telecom infrastructure in rural areas. The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has estimated that the unutilised amount in the USO Fund will increase to Rs 250.44 billion by 2010. Based on its estimates, TRAI had recommended that Rs 90 billion worth of support would be required to connect 90 per cent of rural India.