The Digital Communication Commission (DCC) on Thursday approved various telecom infrastructure projects worth around ₹8,500 crore, including laying of BharatNet fibre in entire Tamil Nadu (for all the villages) worth ₹1,815 crore.

Apart from Telangana and Tamil Nadu, the DCC has approved 4G connectivity in Arunachal Pradesh (2,215 villages) and two districts of Assam (763 villages) with an investment of ₹2,536 crore (for 1,917 mobile towers), which will be funded by Universal Service Obligation Fund (USOF). For Meghalaya also, the Commission has approved ₹2,132 crore to erect 1,593 mobile towers.

Meanwhile, the DCC has also approved the ‘in-building access’ by telecom service providers (TSPs) in which they will be allowed to share their infrastructure. In various buildings, the TSPs have issues that some monopoly exists; say company X not allowing company Y to put its network equipment there.

Curbing monopoly

So, a guideline will be issued to help solve such issues so that the end consumers get the benefit of accessing to a better network.

“Initially, all the existing private commercial and public offices shall start with that. We will request the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs to issue suitable guidelines to owners or residential welfare associations (RWAs) to provide access to all TSPs in a transparent and non-discriminatory manner,” Anshu Prakash, Secretary, Department of Telecommunications (DoT) told reporters here after the DCC meeting.

Communication is a basic necessity and is relevant these days, same as water and electricity supply, and a lot of builders and real estate companies commit such infrastructure to the home buyers.

So, such guidelines will also help the existing buildings on getting better network, and guidelines will also encourage the TSPs to share the optical fiber communication systems (OFCs).

“The guidelines shall be issued saying ‘no owners or RWAs of any existing or new building shall enter into any kind of arrangement with a TSP which results in exclusive access by the particular TSP...thereby taking away the choice and flexibility for the residents or the premises, which they have in terms of quality of service, direct access, etc’. For new buildings, it is easier because they can make such guidelines now, but for the existing buildings they need to change the guidelines,” Prakash said.

He said the DoT will request the Ministry of Housing to dispatch such guidelines at the earliest.

The decision taken on Thursday is pursuant to the TRAI recommendations as well, which has been accepted by the DoT and now approved by the DCC, he said. For existing government and public premises like airports or railways stations or bus terminals, the TSPs will be encouraged to share the end-building infrastructure which is already approved, the DoT Secretary said.

5G trials

Asked about 5G trials, Prakash said it was not part of the agenda, but said some trials will be showcased at the upcoming India Mobile Congress to be held between October 14 and 16.

When asked particularly about giving Huawei the approval for trials, he said ‘no decision has been taken yet’ for the Chinese player.

The government in June had said that 5G trials will start in the next 100 days, but it has given no updates on that yet.

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