The Hindu Business Line : Mandatory tower sharing for telcos

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Barcelona Feb. 15 The Government has decided to make it mandatory for telecom operators to share their passive infrastructure such as towers to lower cost of offering services.

At present, operators are sharing their infrastructure on an ad-hoc basis.

The move will be initiated in Delhi and Mumbai on a trial basis and if it succeeds, infrastructure sharing will be made mandatory across the country.

This comes even as the telecom operators had expressed reservations against making sharing mandatory. The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India is also conducting a consultation on the issue, including allowing the operators to share active infrastructure.

Mr Dayanidhi Maran, Communications and IT Minister, said, "The move is being aimed at enabling the operators to deploy networks faster and also at the same time maintain the aesthetic beauty of the city. Operators have been facing lot of problems in putting up towers with the local municipal rules not allowing towers. We will start with Delhi."

COAI view

Telecom operators, including the Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI), had earlier said that the Government should not make it mandatory to share infrastructure and allow the market forces to decide. COAI had pointed out that the industry has already undertaken sharing of infrastructure under project MOST.

Cellular operators including Airtel, Idea Cellular, Reliance Communication and Aircel are sharing their infrastructure. Vodafone, which has recently acquired Hutchison's stake in Hutch

Essar has also announced a sharing agreement with Airtel. However, the Government's view is that such sharing should be done in an organised manner.

The Department of Telecom is also funding a project that would create cellular infrastructure in rural areas on a shareable basis.

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