Trai starts consultation for bigger play by infrastructure providers

NEW DELHI: The telecom regulator has started a consultation process to take a relook at the business scope of infrastructure providers in the country and encourage active infrastructure sharing at a time when telecom operators are battling shrinking revenue streams and looking at cost-cutting measures.

Infrastructure creation by standalone companies that do not directly compete with telecom operators needs to be promoted, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India has suggested.

At present, passive infrastructure, such as ducts, towers, poles, equipment rooms can be created and shared by infrastructure providers category-I (IP-I) as well as telecom operators, but the creation and sharing of active infrastructure such as antenna, feeder cable and radio access network is permitted to licensed telecom operators only.